


Maestri d'Amore

by delorita, SilverFountains



Category: Da Vinci's Demons
Genre: Admiration, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Bromance, Hate to Love, Jealousy, M/M, Older Man/Younger Man, Oral Sex, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Riario is playing a dangerous game, Sex Lessons, Sexual Confusion, Sexual Experimentation, Stockholm Syndrome, Teacher-Student Relationship, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2018-09-22 07:15:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 54,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9590837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delorita/pseuds/delorita, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverFountains/pseuds/SilverFountains
Summary: When Niccolo watches Count Riario order Zoroaster's execution he swears to revenge his friend. But with no sign of Da Vinci and at the mercy of Riario he slowly begins to see a different side to his captor. The count once told him that hate and love can be difficult to tell apart and he seems to be right.Once they are all reunited again, Nico is torn though between his loyalty to Da Vinci and now Count Riario. That is made all the more complicated by the fact that Leonardo himself has become obsessed with Girolamo - and his affections appear to be returned by the count, leaving Nico to feel betrayed by the two men he now idolises.





	1. Chapter 1

"It's my conviction that it is better to be feared than loved, Nico," Riario says grimly. He looks the boy up and down then gives him a wry smile. "Love makes us weak. Vulnerable. It deceives and destroys."

Nico feels his rage flare at that. How dare he say such a thing? Even though the only persons he had ever had any interest in during his adolescent years were either too preoccupied to think about him as a lover or treated him as their little brother, they had been the most important people in his life. And now Zo is dead and he doesn't know what happened to Vanessa or Leo but he fears the worst. And all because of this man. “ _You_ are the one who deceives and destroys!” he hisses venomously.

Riario stops pacing and crouches down by the cage so he's at eye level with Nico, ignoring the hate that radiates off the young man. “Why do you follow Da Vinci? What has he promised you in return?"

"Promised?" Nico spits at the count who has him prisoner. "Nothing," he shakes his head angrily, wondering what the other wants. He does not trust the cruel count one bit. The torture Riario put him under is still freshly in his head and he rubs the back of his hand just thinking about it. He doesn’t know why he’s talking to the man who killed Zo so cold blooded and so he turns away.

"Nothing?" Riario laughs as if it's the most ridiculous thing he's ever heard. "Don't get me wrong, Da Vinci is... fascinating. But even you are not so naive that you would die for him without reason." He cocks his head, studying the blond boy. "You are clever, Nico. You think you need Da Vinci," he assesses this hold that the war engineer has over the boy. "But you stand in his shadow."

"Of course I stand in his shadow," Nico answers heatedly. "I'm there to learn from him. He's a genius and he has the most wicked ideas..." he stops, biting his tongue quickly, not wanting to reveal too much. He's somehow grateful though, that the Captain General is talking to him because this journey is grating on his nerves, sitting in a cage like an exotic bird, bored out of his skull worrying about his fate and that of his friends.

Riario is quiet for a long while as he thinks about that. _He does not mind...,_ he thinks with fascination. _He is happy to be Da Vinci's errand boy._

"I think there is much more to you than you give yourself credit for," he smiles a little, lowering his gaze a moment.

Nico is completely puzzled. Why is his enemy saying that? He doesn't know what to answer. "That's none of your business," he grinds his teeth, very well knowing that he risks more torture.

Riario sighs as he gets to his feet. Of course, after the torture, the kidnapping and the fact that he keeps the young apprentice locked in a cage, as well as his orders to have Leonardo and the mongrel killed, it's hardly surprising Nico finds it hard to trust him. But it's frustrating him nonetheless that Nico cannot see he means him no harm. That he values him, more so than the others ever did. "You and I are not that different, Nico," he says coolly.

Nico looks at the count in the semi darkness. "What makes you say that?" he asks under his breath.

Riario smirks at that, pleased that he's seemingly finally has managed to rouse Nico's interest. He does not look at him as he keeps himself half turned from him. "I too have spent my early life in the shadow of another," he says softly. "Undervalued. Trying to please. Hoping to gain recognition. Knowing that no matter what you do you will never step out of those shadows. You are just there to feed the monster..." he mutters to himself now.

“The maestro is no monster," Nico defends his master heatedly, leaning boldly forward, grabbing the steel of his cage angrily.

Riario twists himself around in an instant, grinning at the boy. "Is he not?" He bends himself close to the cage, feeling Nico's agitated breath on his face. "There is a monster in each of us, Nico. Even you!" he prods his finger through the bars of the cage against Nico's chest. "Remember how good it felt when you cut me. When you plunged your knife towards my chest," he hisses, his hands wrapped around the bars now until his knuckles turn white. "Do not pretend to be a saint, Nico. For your master sure does not."

_Indeed, it felt surprisingly good, to cut the man who inflicted such pain on me, to stab a hole in his palm. And I was so disappointed when my knife didn't cut through his chest._

_And here the very same man stands in front of me, trying to make idle conversation_. _I don't know what to think._ Nico doesn't dare to say that out loud though. He just keeps staring at the count so close to him. The scar of his outburst still visible on his cheek, which fills the young man with satisfaction.

Riario smirks as he sees the flickers of doubt and of the fire inside behind Nico's big frightened eyes. He releases his hard grip on the bars. “You should get some sleep. We have a long journey ahead of us.”

“Sleep?” it slips out of Nico’s mouth way too quickly. “How can I sleep knowing you keep me prisoner? And not knowing what will happen on this journey at all!” Nico suddenly feels a wave of panic wash over him and all his calm demeanour is gone.

Riario tilts his head slightly, looking at Nico in surprise. “You think I mean you harm? If I wanted to kill you I would have disposed of you before we set sail, together with Da Vinci's mongrel and that whore of a cousin of mine.” He shakes his head. “I keep you in here, dear Nico, because I cannot yet trust you not to plunge a knife in my back at the first opportunity. But you need not fear me.”

“That’s probably for the better then!” Nico hisses, “I’ll always hate you for killing Zo! And I will revenge him!”

Riario holds Nico's gaze as if to challenge him like he had once before when Nico had responded and given him the scar on his cheek. He smirks but there is a sting inside of him that he feels at those words, even if he hides it behind his mask of confident arrogance. “Hate is as much a weak emotion as love,” he sneers. “I find that the two are often hard to tell apart.”

Nico doesn’t know how to answer to that, his insides still boiling though. After a moment he asks, “What do you want from me then? For me to give all my master’s secrets away?” _At least the ones I know about. No chance._

“Perhaps…” Riario smiles. “Perhaps I just want your companionship. I like you, Nico. You have spirit. And great potential.”

Nico frowns at that. He sits back in his corner and huffs at the kind of praise. “I don’t understand you, count Riario. And I will never forgive you,” he says very lowly.

Riario nods, hiding his slight disappointment. “I do not ask for your forgiveness,” he says sharply. “Only God has the power to forgive our sins.” He sighs. “One day you may understand, Nico, how our pathetic lives, our ails and our pains, are a mere blemish on a much greater plan. And you too will make those sacrifices to achieve a greater goal.” He turns around abruptly and leaves the apprentice to ponder in the darkness once more.

+++

Count Riario does not return the following day. Nor the day after that. And by the third day Nico is beginning to think he may never come to see him again after their heated exchange. He is not sure how he feels about that. The one side of him is relieved that he does not have to endure Riario's teasing, his sharp comments and his constant reminders of all Nico has lost. But on the other hand the silence is starting to really freak him out and he is beginning to wonder whether the count has decided to just let him rot in here; even though the fact that the slaves are still bringing him food and water suggests otherwise.

He had tried to engage with his daily visitors but they never made eye contact and they never spoke a word. Nico guessed that they were afraid of Riario and so eventually he had dropped it, returning to his own disturbing thoughts.

_What happened to Da Vinci? What will happen when we reach land, IF we reach land?_

Nico’s thoughts go round and round in circles while he’s perched in that cage day and night. He’s very grateful that he doesn’t get seasick, resisting the food Riario gets delivered to him anyway. _Did_ _he poison me so I’m telling him my maestro’s secrets without knowing about it?_

But there is also another thought now, one that he finds possibly more disturbing than his musings about his own fate and that of his friends. _Count Riario said he likes me. What does that mean? He likes my companionship but kills Zo? He’s aware I might kill him in return and still wants to keep me alive? Why?_

“Good morning, novizio,” Girolamo smiles as he puts down some wine, watching the blonde boy jump visibly. He frowns though when he sees the untouched plate of food. “You are not eating?”

“Buongiorno,” Nico mumbles, his voice feels very rusty, “I have no appetite,” he lies, his stomach growling loudly. He tries very hard to hide the fact that he is relieved that he might not have to rot in here. He feels like he’s been tortured again though. Tortured with loneliness and ignorance.

Riario tuts as he puts the beaker in front of Nico. “You achieve nothing by denying yourself food other than your own suffering. And I'm not in the business of poisoning my prisoners,” he guesses at Nico's other reason for resisting the food. “I prefer a more hands on approach,” he winks.

Nico can't help a sudden chuckle at the count's analogy, rubbing the scar on his hand again. He decides to listen to his tummy and takes a slice of dried meat and the wine. "The journey goes as planned?" he tries to ask nonchalantly, hoping the count won’t leave so quickly. A heated debate is so much better than dozing around and having the feeling of slowly losing your mind.

Riario is tempted to lie in order to keep up the appearance that he knows what he is doing, but he decides on a different tactic. “No, not really.” He sits down next to the cage and sips his wine, pleased that Nico is eating something now. “As you will have felt the sea is getting rough,” he admits. “The crew are saying a storm is brewing.” He raises his eyes to meet Nico's. “And when we get there, we still don't have the key to the Vault. So, no,” he grimaces, “I would not say that it's going to _my_ plan. But,” he raises his finger in the air, “I trust in God’s plan and that He will guide us.”

Nico smirks, glad that it doesn't go as Riario had hoped, but also a little surprised that he seems to tell the truth and not lie to him. He watches the man carefully, observing that he's lost bits of his clothing, looking less formal, even a bit less intimidating.

Riario offers Nico a half smile, considering carefully whether to ask the next question or not, but he decides he has nothing to lose since they are stuck on this forsaken ship together. “Who is waiting for you back in Florence, Niccolò?”

Nico almost chokes on the bread he's chewing. What a strange question to ask. He stares at Riario for a long moment, then says, "No one," _since you killed everyone I cared for._ “But that’s none of your business,” he snaps.

Riario raises an eyebrow at that but then nods. He gets to his feet and unlocks the cage, much to Nico's surprise. “Get up,” the count orders as he draws his sword.

Nico stares wide eyed at the servant of the Vatican, not sure what to make of Riario's sudden activity. He balls his fists, ready to fight with everything he’s got.

Riario laughs at Nico's reaction, snarling at him like a beaten dog. But he's pleased that the young man has not lost his spirit and that he shows little fear even after everything he had endured. “Excellent.” He takes his dagger from his belt and throws it in front of Nico. “Get up,” he repeats. “I did not take you all the way across the world just to keep me company. We do not know what awaits us in the Vault of Heaven. Now get up and I will teach you how to fight.”

Nico takes the dagger and grasps it fiercely but he stumbles out of the cage, feeling the stings of a thousand needles while standing up properly for the first time in weeks. He curses and tries to regain his balance quickly, ready to charge against the man who killed his best friend and possibly also his maestro.

Girolamo grins in satisfaction. He assesses his opponent a moment then drops his sword and opens up his arms. “Go on,” he entices the other. “Do your best, Nico.”

 _The first time this snake lets down his guard, sink a dagger and slice him from balls to brains._ He can still hear Zo’s last words in his head. But Nico hesitates. It's too easy. He knows that Riario has not kept him alive all this time to allow him to kill him now without putting up a fight himself. It's clearly a trap; he's not daft. Perhaps even a test to see if he can be trusted yet. _Fuck that!_ he thinks to himself. He might well die trying but he will give it his very best shot to revenge his friends.

He raises his arm and aims for Riario’s throat. "I might not kill you," he rasps, "But I’ll make you bleed for Zo and for the maestro!”

Riario chuckles and pulls open his shirt, baring his chest. “I'm unarmed. This is the moment you've been waiting for. Now, do it, garzone. Have your revenge!” he entices.

Nico launches himself at the count. He just as quickly finds himself disarmed by the seasoned fighter, as expected, but he does not yet give up the fight yet and starts to hit the man who killed his best friend and punches him like mad. Chest, stomach, nose…

Riario laughs loudly, allowing the young man to get his rage out for a few moments. Until he grabs his wrists and stills those fists. “The worst thing to do when facing your enemy is to let your emotions get the better of you,” he reprimands. He pushes Nico back, wipes the blood from his nose and picks up the knife again. “Now, was Zoroaster’s life worth so little that you will not revenge him properly?” he tries to enflame the blonde boy as he's pushes the dagger in his hand again. “Focus!” 

Nico’s arm shoots out at his hip now, trying to stab Riario’s stomach. “How _dare you_ speak Zo’s name!”  

Riario responds swiftly, blocking the attack with his forearm. The knife cuts through his skin, blood trickling to the wooden floor. He twists the both of them so that Nico is with his back to him and he bends the other's arm until the boy is forced to release the knife. The count pushes his forearm against Nico's throat as he pulls him flush against him, breathing into his ear, “Good. Better. But you leave open your guard and your attack is predictable. You are not a seasoned swordsman, Nico. So you need to be cunning. Use surprise rather than force.”

Nico isn’t sure what just happened. Everything was a swift blur of motions. He feels the count’s breath against the side of his neck and a shiver runs through him. He doesn’t know if it’s fear, anger or something else altogether. He can’t believe that his opponent first teases him to the point that he can almost taste the hatred between them, but then he gives him advice how to overcome his enemy.

 _I find love and hate can be difficult to tell apart_ , Riario's strange words echo in his head.

He huffs in frustration about himself and the situation then he quickly kicks Riario in the chin with his heel and bites him into the forearm that is pressed against his throat.

Riario chuckles as the pain shoots through him. He lets the other go. “That's much better.” He smirks at the venomous gaze that Nico throws him. “Never be afraid to fight dirty, Nico. This is not some theatrical performance. There are no prizes for dying gracefully. You fight to live, by any means. Do you understand?”

Nico nods his head slowly, gaping at the other. “Why…?” He doesn’t find the words he wants to ask. He can’t get his head around the fact that first count Riario wanted to kill him to get to his goals, tortured him very brutally with the widow’s tears device, and now he stands here, telling him how to survive. He looks up into the blood smeared face, the deep cut in his forearm, stunned that his bite alone didn’t give the other reason to put him back into the cage.

“I don’t understand… I mean I do understand…” Nico stammers, “Why are you telling me this? I cannot see how you have suddenly come to like me…” he trails off, backing towards the ship’s wall, eyeing the count carefully, his heart racing in his chest.

Riario keeps his eyes on Nico as he bends down to pick up the dagger,  sheathing it once more. He cocks his head slightly. “I want you on my side when we enter the vault, Nico, to be able to face whatever trials await us. And I've always liked you. You would not be here if I had not.”

“And now you expect me to like you too all of a sudden? What happened to my maestro anyway? All the time I was thinking he is alive. But maybe you have been where he was so distractedly running to? Maybe you set him a trap and killed him too?”

Riario is taken aback by Nico's words. Until then he had not realised that he wanted the boy to like him. He cared so little about people's opinions of him, used to the lifelong hatred that most displayed towards him. It made his job easier after all. _It's better to be feared than loved…_ And yet he feels something churning inside when Nico challenges him this time. As if they are balanced on a knife’s edge together and whatever he says next could either open a door or shut anything that he had tried to carefully build between them for good. “I did not kill Da Vinci,” he states without emotion, holding Nico's gaze firmly.

Nico feels a little relief but is still suspicious, “But you know who did?” he asks, trying to suppress the tremor in his voice.

Riario considers whether to tell the truth but decides it might help bridge the gap he's struggling to close between them. “He was alive when I last saw him. Foolishly trying to save Lorenzo. I know no more than that. He tried to bury me alive by blowing up the catacombs of the Basilica di Santa Croce and yet by God’s grace here I stand before you,” he smirks at Nico. “That's all I know and that's the truth.”

A grin pulls at the corner of Nico’s mouth at Riario admitting Da Vinci tried to bury him beneath the church, what strange coincidence - or not - would that have been. The relief disappears instantly though as he grinds out his next question, “And Zo? Why did you kill Zo?” he asks bluntly. He wants to understand the motives of the count. And deep inside he also does not want Riario to go again, he does not want to be alone again, not knowing if he'll ever see daylight again. At least whilst Riario is here he feels alive and not forgotten and thrown away like a piece of rotten fruit.

Riario is a little surprised that Nico asks him that. That he's even talking to him at all. “It would have been too dangerous to take him with us,” he answers softly. “He was too volatile and driven by his hatred. I could not take the risk with him as I did with you.” He cocks his head at Nico. “The Book of Leaves is a relic so powerful, I've searched for it my entire life, Nico. And I will let nothing stand in my way to get it now that I'm so close.”

 _I could not take the risk with him as I did with you._ Nico lets the sentence sink in for a few moments, but he decides to let that go. Instead he asks, “If my maestro is still alive …. what if he is following us? What if he found another ship?”

Riario smiles a wicked smile at that. “Oh I do hope so. After all we need Da Vinci to open the Vault,” he winks at Nico, amused by his raw intelligence that still needs so much nurturing.

Nico opens his mouth and closes it again. _Of course._ He had not considered that before and suddenly he sees hope at the horizon. “Alright, teach me how to survive then,” Nico says more confident, raising his chin.

Riario’s grin widens, impressed by the novice’s bravery and, despite all odds, his eagerness to learn. He's not fooled that Nico may not use it against him if he gets the opportunity. But that is a risk he's willing to take for now.  

+++

After several weeks of regular training of hand to hand combat and the basics of sword fighting, Nico’s point of view about the count slowly begins to change. He had not been locked up again since that very first day that Riario had begun to teach him. But what surprises Nico most is that the warrior truly takes him seriously. Yes, there are sharp comments and vicious sarcasm when he messes up; Riario is a hard task master without a doubt. But there is also praise and encouragement, which is something Nico had not been prepared for.

The journey is exhausting and uncomfortable, being in the confined spaces of the ship with so many men. No one really knowing where they are going. The count doing the mathematics about their course and letting Nico being a part of that too.

As he gets to know Riario better, Nico finds his knowledge about things is almost as intriguing as Da Vinci’s even if they approach things from completely opposing viewpoints.

He tries his best to ignore the fact that they’re looking at a map that is out of human skin as they try to figure it out together, Nico finally able to use his skills he learned as a student.

“Do you have someone waiting back home in Rome?” he asks out of the blue one day, remembering the count’s question from weeks back.

The conversation between them had been relatively easy flowing of recent and as Nico had lowered his offences Riario's defences had slowly come down as well. But as soon as that question lands the gates slam shut like the jaws of a vicious beast. “No.” Riario swallows. “Not anymore.” He puts down the pen he had been using to make notes of his calculations and briefly closes his eyes.

Nico looks at the count in surprise. He had not seen such a vulnerable emotion from him before and neither expected one. "Not anymore?" he dares to inquire more, putting his own pen aside.  

Riario raises his eyes to the young man, studying him for a moment as he decides whether he wants to talk about this or not. “She was … she died,” he says softly, sitting down now.

"Oh..." Nico feels instant pity, even though he knows he shouldn’t. He crouches at the other’s feet, sensing his discomfort. He had not expected at all that the Sword of the Church had had someone he loved.

 _It's better to be feared than loved._ Riario’s quote jumps into his head. Maybe this is where it came from. The hurt from losing a loved one… maybe that has made the count so cruel in the first place?

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs, not sure if his soft voice overcomes the noise of the waves that crash against the wall of the ship outside, almost making him lose his balance.

“I do not ask for your apologies,” Riario says sharply. “You are not responsible for the actions of another!”

Nico stands abruptly at the sharp tone, “You seemed…” he tries to find the right word, “sad. That’s why I said I’m sorry.” He lets the second part sink in and frowns, “Was she killed?” Suddenly he remembers Riario bringing flowers to a grave. That must have been her.

“Yes.” Riario draws in a slow breath and looks up at Nico. “I killed her,” he confesses. His gaze grows distant as the memory rolls in like the waves crashing against the hull.

Nico gasps in shock.

“She was my servant for many years. Her name was Zita. She came to Rome as a slave.  I taught her our language. She… she did not fear me,” he says with a pain ringing clear in his tone, even if he still finds it hard to say _she loved me._

“W-why did you kill her?” Nico asks, unsure whether he should stay or whether this is best left unanswered. But for some reason he feels a duty to allow the count to explain. And he is intrigued by the story also, how Riario had come to kill the woman he clearly had loved.

“Because she asked me to…” Girolamo chokes out as he struggles to keep his normally tightly wrapped emotions in.

“She asked you to?” Nico echoes somewhat stupidly and swallows a big lump in his throat. He can see even in the dim light how much the usually arrogant and cynical man tries to keep his composure. He steps closer and lies his hand comfortingly onto the other’s shoulder. “She must have been extraordinary,” he whispers.

Riario looks up in surprise, appreciating the unexpected gesture that bridges the gap between them in an instant. “She was. But a black slave girl and the Pope's nephew…” he shakes his head. “If you thought that your maestro was severely punished for his escapades outside the laws of decency you can imagine how dangerous our affair was under the roof of the Vatican.”

Nico holds his breath as he thinks about that. He squeezes Riario’s shoulder, “Damn, yes,” he shakes his head thinking about the unfairness of life, looking at his new teacher openly, wondering why he lets him see so much vulnerability. The count’s eyes, normally hard as steel, show so much emotion Nico never thought him capable off. A sudden feeling of pride grips him, at being the person the Captain General confides into.

“My… The Holy Father,” Riario catches himself out of habit, “found out that I cared for her.  I think he simply thought that I preferred her in my bed, I do not believe he understood the strength of my feelings for her.” He swallows as he tentatively lays his own hand over the one on his shoulder. “Then one day he ordered me to bring her to his chambers…”

Nico frowns, “The Holy Father? Isn’t he supposed to be, I mean…” he struggles, “Do you mean he wanted to have her in his bed too?”

Riario realises too late that he's spoken out of turn. Never in his career has he betrayed the Pope's trust or broken his vow of secrecy. But then he begins to laugh. The chances that they will survive this journey are slim. Returning to Rome practically non existent. He smirks at Nico. “The Holy Father enjoys many privileges he denies his good disciples,” he sneers.

Then his face grows somber. “I refused him. And so he threatened to…  take her by force and make me watch,” he swallows the bile that rises in his throat. He drags a hand across his face in an attempt to compose himself then straightens himself again. “She was a proud woman and would not dishonour me or herself. And so she begged for me,” his voice grows so deep and quiet that Nico has to lean in to hear him, “to be the hand that set her free.” He stares into the darkness, reliving the moment of plunging his knife into Zita’s heart and her dying in his arms.

Nico gasps in horror again. The count’s laughter had confused him as had the thought of the Holy Father having women in his bed just like that. He feels the sudden urge to comfort the other man with an embrace since he’s clearly out of his comfort zone after telling him what must be his most secret thoughts. He lies his arm around Riario’s shoulders.

The count stills, unsure how to respond to the comforting gesture in turn. “You see now why I embraced the opportunity to go on this journey even if it may be our demise,” he says softly, not actually sure if he even wants to return to Rome. He feels a single tear run down the line of the scar that Nico had given him.

Nico suddenly finds himself pressing a kiss against Riario’s temple overwhelmed by his compassion because of the heart wrenching tale he’s just heard.

Riario blinks in surprise. “Thank you,” he smiles a little awkwardly. He does not know what else to say now, wondering why he had told Nico all this and yet feeling relieved at the same time to have been able to do so. He briefly cups Nico's face in return of the gentle gesture but quickly gets up and excuses himself before his defences crumble altogether.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maestri di Amore - masters of love  
> novizio - novice  
> Buongiorno - Good morning  
> garzone - boy/ apprentice


	2. Chapter 2

Over the next few days Nico finds himself mulling over and over in his head what his former enemy had told him about the woman he had loved. And not only what he’s told him but also how many different emotions had wracked the count while doing so. Nico didn’t think Riario would be capable of loving someone so deeply. Especially someone who was not accepted in their society at all.

He looks at Girolamo Riario with a completely changed point of view. He isn’t a monster. He’s a human, just like himself. A man who had suffered greatly at the hands of his own father. It's not a justification of the count's cruel behaviour in the past, but it sure is an explanation.

He pays even more attention now in their lessons and finds himself more and more drawn to the man as food becomes scarce and the mood on the ship gets gloomier.

Riario's intelligence and knowledge continue to surprises him. For someone who breathes Roman Catholic doctrine he is surprisingly well versed in a myriad of things including classical history, mythology, the art of warfare, politics and even foreign languages. He is so much more than a fanatical killing machine. And Nico cannot help but compare the count to his maestro. Both bastards. Both from abusive fathers. And yet the outcome, the path they had each chosen is so different. Or is it? Riario had not been shy in pointing out Da Vinci's flaws; his arrogance, his disregard for the impact of his actions, his steadfast belief in his own genius. Initially Nico had bristled at those accusations, defending his maestro vehemently. But the more he thought about it, the more he could see that the count had a point. Perhaps once you scratched away at the surface the two men were not so very different after all.

+++

Riario studies the map in front of him with increasing concern. They should have reached land now, of that he's sure, and so the storm must have blown them off course. He tries to work out how many days their remaining rations will last them - and whether he may have to reduce the number of crew by other means in order to survive, working out the critical minimum they would need to navigate them to safety.

He looks up when Nico appears in his cabin. The boy has got thin, but his youthful softness has begun to make way for lean muscle. He may not be as skilled a fighter as him yet - one does not learn that on a ship in the space of a month - but nonetheless his wit and eagerness to learn have impressed the count.

“Nico,” he smiles. “Any sign yet? Any birds in the sky?”

Nico shakes his head frustratedly, “Not yet,” he tries to be cheerful but can’t hide his uneasiness. He likes it best to be near the count these days since it now gives him the feeling of safety.

Riario gets up and nods. The climate has gotten increasingly hot and humid over the last week or so and he now wears just his grey undershirt open over his black trousers.

“Three days,” he says to Nico. “Maybe four if we limit portions, and then we'll be out of food. We have ale for another two after that.”

Nico stares at the droplets of sweat that run down the count’s pectorals. Somewhere in his brain he registers his words. But he finds he doesn’t really care anymore since all of this is beyond his doing. The portions have been cut back before and he’s hungry and thirsty all the time. The fear of their end becomes unbearable as soon as he thinks about it. Starvation or drowning. Neither a great choice.

“Is there any hope we’ll reach land before that?” Nico asks, not sure anymore how to address the man who almost has become his friend now. He takes off his own shirt to rub the sweat from his forehead and tosses it into a corner since this garment isn’t necessary in this increasing heat and the face of death.

Girolamo swallows as he glances over at Nico, his eyes just briefly scanning his angelic features and lean torso “We should have reached land days ago,” he coughs, forcing his gaze back to the map, pointing at the markers. “There is another storm on its way which could slam us into the rocks if we are as close as I think we are.” He raises his eyes to Nico who joins him at the table. “We must pray that God will guide us safely ashore.”

Nico looks into the count’s eyes for his steadfast belief in God. It normally makes him calmer to pray with his teacher. But today it doesn’t. Even if Girolamo appears calm he can sense the concern in his voice. The rest of the crew are less reserved in their unease and Nico wonders how long it will be before a mutiny breaks out.

“Do you think we will make it?” he asks softly.

“Whatever happens, it is God's will,” Riario responds uncommittedly.

Nico frowns at that. He had found it interesting listening to Count Riario talk about God. It fascinated him how strong the man's faith was, despite the associated horrors of his father's reign as Pope. He had even taken some of those teachings as values and he had learnt that there was a lot of wisdom in the Scriptures that Riario quoted from. But he could not find himself place such unfaltering trust in something that he could neither see nor feel with his own senses without any question. “It is God's will that we die on this ship?” he dares ask.

Riario holds Nico's gaze. “It is God's choice whether we fail or succeed.”

Nico huffs, leaning over the map again. “Well, that may be but I think we should try and keep the odds in our favour if we can. Just in case.”

Riario smirks at that. He walks over to Nico and lays his hands on his shoulders, feeling the clammy heat oust from his skin. “Do you fear death, Nico?”

The younger man thinks about this for a moment. “Yes,” he admits. “Only because I don't feel like I've done enough. I'm not ready to die. I… I want to do more with my life still. Not die on this damn ship without even having found what we are looking for!”

“Then we must trust that God still has great plans for you, Niccolò,” Riario grins. He loves the young man's spirit and passion. Always wanting to push the boundaries of the known. That definitely is Leonardo's influence.

“I guess nothing great was ever achieved without danger,” Nico smirks back. The hand that still rests on his shoulder burns like a fire that pulses through his whole body and his heart is beating a little faster. “Is there anything you regret not having done before you die?” he asks as he gets up, looking into Riario's dark eyes.

Riario tilts his head at that unexpected question. “There are many things I regret,” he whispers, not divulging any more. “And you?”

Nico swallows as they stand so close to each other. He finds himself raising his hand and placing it against Girolamo's bare chest, where once he had tried to stab a dagger straight through his heart. “Yes,” he chokes softly. “I… I regret that I misjudged you before…”

Riario blinks in surprise, taking a deep breath at that tender touch and admission. “You need not regret that,” he mutters, brushing Nico's curls behind his ear.

“But I do,” Nico insists, a shiver running down his spine at the count's touch. “I…” He stops talking, unable to put into words what he wants to say. Instead he lurches forward and kisses the count fully on the mouth. His brain short circuiting from the whole situation. He feels so desperately drawn to the other, craves his closeness, his presence.

Riario pulls back in complete surprise, staring at Nico with wide eyes. He opens his mouth but cannot find any words in response to that kiss.

“I… I’m sorry,” Nico blinks, “I’m confused,” he says hoarsely. He doesn’t know why his body reacts so strongly to the count now. He can feel his erection growing.

Riario's eyes grow dark as he inhales slowly. He closes the space he'd created between them quickly, grabbing Nico's face in his hands as he kisses him back fiercely.

 _Yes!_ Nico thinks as he sneaks his arms around that sweaty upper body and pulls Girolamo close. He’s never kissed a man before. He welcomes the invading tongue with vicious swirls of his own. He steps closer, searching for friction.

Girolamo grins as feels the other's desperate need press up against him. “You want to fuck?” he groans into Nico's soft warm mouth wickedly.

“Si!” Nico whispers back, surprised at the blunt question but feeling the other’s cock grow against his rapidly. He boldly slides his hands beneath the waistband of Girolamo’s trousers to caress the skin of his behind. 

The count grunts in approval. In another time and place he does not think he would have propositioned the young apprentice such nor does he believe the other would have expressed his appetite for such deviance. But with their outlook so bleak and after months of discomfort and abstinence from any form of pleasure they both simply hunger for some distraction, some satisfaction. And whilst Riario rarely has enough interest in anyone to let his guard down that much, over the last few weeks a bond of mutual respect and friendship has grown. And so he does not hesitate for long when Nico agrees to take their minds off the troubles ahead.

He lifts the boy up with ease and swipes his carefully placed map and astrolabe onto the floor. Those items are useless now anyway, now that they are at God's mercy. Instead he lays his new treasure out before him, grinning a predatory smile at  Nico's flushed face. “Do you know how to fuck, Niccolò?” he rumbles low in his throat.

Nico nods his head, “I… I’ve seen pictures,” he admits, fumbling with the laces on his trousers, his cock aching to be touched. “Never done it with a man though,” he licks his lips as he stares up at Girolamo’s perfect frame, the muscles playing beneath his glistening skin.

Riario chuckles at Nico's innocence, but it also turns him on that the blond angelic boy wants him to show him the way.  He pulls his own trousers down before helping Nico dispose of his. He slowly licks his lips too as he rubs his now heavy cock against Nico's sleek rod, watching the youngster tremble.

“Fuck!” Nico mutters as Girolamo’s palm rubs over his heated, sensitive skin. He looks down as both their dicks chafe against each other. “That’s hot,” he murmurs, sliding his finger tentatively across the other’s cock head. A spike of want lurching through him.

“You are a fine young man,” Girolamo whispers as he bends himself down to press his lips against that soft smooth chest. His hands stroke Nico's thighs as he curls himself up already, so eager and wanting.

Nico feels very exposed but at the same time willing to be on display for the older man. He loves the way he looks at him and his parched lips on his chest make his whole body go up in flames. The muscles of his pucker flutter very strangely, pleasantly. He grabs himself at the backs of his knees to show his all to Riario.

The count smiles at his unexpected lover displaying himself so wantonly. He slowly sucks his thumb into his mouth, making a show of it whilst fisting their cocks together briefly. Then he brings his moist digit to that inviting place, pressing gently against that lovely fluttering rose. “Beautiful Nico,” he whispers hoarsely as his thumb disappears between those milky white buttocks, sending thrills right to his cock.

Nico makes a very animalistic noise as he’s breached, not sure if he likes this or not but his cock definitely grows even more interested as his muscles grip the count’s digit hard. “Call me Niccolò again, please, Girolamo…” he gasps, taking a perked-up nipple between his thumb and forefinger.

“Niccolò,” Girolamo tastes his lover’s full name with pleasure on his tongue. He loves that the other calls him by his Christian name in turn. “You are like an angel,” he sighs, both wanting to take it slow and needing to be inside his lover. “So pure.” He strokes the inside of Nico's thighs when with his other hand he fucks two fingers slowly into him now. Liquid is pearling on his tip as he feels the young man open up for him.

The stretch is a little painful but as Nico sees the result on the other’s dick he grunts in approval, fisting himself. “It’s uncomfortable but I want more…” he frowns, concentrating hard.

Girolamo decides to take pity on the untouched youngster as he steps away and ruts through his cupboard a moment until he finds a small flask of sperm oil for the lamps, deciding that the waxy substance will work well enough. “Let me help you, Niccolò, to make it easier,” he winks. He dips his fingers in the substance and smears it generously between the apprentice’s buttocks. Then he applies the same to his own now aching dick, the tip flushed a deep red already as he struggles to hold himself back much longer.

“Ohhhhhhh that’s much better!” Nico groans as the two fingers are easily slipped in now. “Your sword, Girolamo, need it!” He works his own erection hard in anticipation to be filled completely. He has never known such pure want.

Riario pulls back his fingers and grabs Nico's hips, pulling him to the edge of the table. Now that the blonde boy is begging him so desperately he cannot restrain himself any longer and he pushes his cockhead into that sweet pink heat, grunting deeply. “Fuck, mio angelo…” he pants.

Nico moans loudly half in pain and half in pleasure as he throws his head back at the intrusion. His arse muscles want to pull Riario in and press him out at the same time. It’s a most weird feeling. It’s like all his nerve strings are where that gorgeous cock rubs him so intensely. “Girolamo...” he gasps, not knowing what to beg for, sweat rolling of his temples.

Girolamo places his hands on either side of the handsome youngster as he slowly sinks himself into him. “Bel ragazzo,” he moans against Nico's neck.

"More!” Nico groans as he tosses his head from side to side, not believing how incredible this feels.

The count does not hold back anymore now, moving his hips with force and determination. Two months on this cursed ship has been a long time and his frustration, though not necessarily sexual in nature, seeks an outlet as he fucks with abundance into his pupil.

Nico holds onto his lover's forearms as he gets fucked into oblivion. It's raw, animalistic lust he can see in Riario's eyes and he knows his show the same. His dick is leaking precum now too but he doesn't want this to end. It's like only their bodies exist now. He doesn't even feel the hard surface of the table anymore. He grunts and groans as the count takes possession of him.

Girolamo is impressed by the young man's willingness and his stamina. It's a good sign for what is to come, he decides, that Nico can take the pain and work through it, embrace it even and work it to his advantage. He feels a sense of achievement and pride that their many days and nights of sparring both mentally and physically have paid off thus far in such a fabulous way.

He grabs Nico's wrists and pulls him up into a sitting position, wrapping the boy’s legs around him. He holds him tight as they meet each other's thrusts with a needy, desperate hunger.

His blunt nails dig deep into the soft flesh of his younger lover when Girolamo comes inside of Nico with deep unintelligent grunts, slamming himself between those virgin buttocks until he sees stars, sweat pouring down his back.

The change of angle lets Girolamo’s cock brush against something deep inside of Nico that sends thousands of pleasurable sparks through his thoroughly worked body, “Oh fuck oh FUCK!” Nico rasps as it takes him completely by surprise. He shoots his semen between the two of them as he captures his lover’s mouth in a bruising kiss, plunging his tongue deeply into the other’s mouth, grabbing the back of his neck, loving the feeling of being completely impaled on his former enemy’s cock. He shudders together with him.

Riario feels total satisfaction for the first time in what feels like a lifetime already, not just at his own release but to have his inexperienced pupil climax in his arms just on the friction of his cock inside him is delightful. He holds him for a long few moments of heavy panting against each other, of his slowly softening cock still throbbing inside that scorching hot channel. Just breathing together as the world outside may burn to ashes.

Finally though he releases his hard embrace and pulls back.

Nico reaches for him instantly, “Don’t go, Girolamo,” he wraps his legs around him tighter, frames his face with his hands. “That was another incredible lesson,” he half jokes, searching for something in the count’s eyes. Not sure what though. “Grazie,” he whispers, still breathless.

“Il piacere è tutto mio,” Girolamo smiles back although his mask is already beginning to slide back in place. He presses a kiss against Nico's forehead, brushing his hand through his golden curls, but peels himself out of the embrace, reaching for his casually disposed trousers.

Nico feels a little awkward now and looks down sheepishly, grabbing for a dirty cloth to get rid of the semen on his stomach. His backside feels wide open as he gingerly gets up and looks for his trousers as well. A thousand thoughts flit through his head. They’ve come such a long way but what are they now? Lovers? Surely not. This didn’t feel romantic but definitely very mutual and enjoyable. “Are...are we friends?” he asks unsurely, looking at the count from under his locks.

Riario looks up. Nico looks so very young standing there unsure of himself now. And yet he'd proven himself a worthy and mature partner in more ways than one.

“I assume you know the story of Catamitus, dearest Niccolò,” he simply grins in answer. He holds out his hand towards the young man.

“Catamitus … He was abducted by Jupiter …” Nico frowns, unsure what that has to do with anything.

Riario holds Nico's gaze firmly as he watches the thought take hold. “Indeed. Jupiter brought the young man to Olympus to pour his wine for all eternity, so that he might forever gaze upon his beauty,” he smiles thickly at Nico. “Although some say that he enjoyed the young man with more than just his eyes…”

“And you see me as your Catamitus?” Nico grins feeling very honoured to be seen that way by his smart teacher. “You held me prisoner so that you could enjoy my _beauty_ for all eternity?” he laughs, but blushes also.

“I would never condone such heresy,” Riario smirks as he pulls Nico closer. “But equally I do not wish to sleep alone tonight,” he whispers in his ear.

Nico looks up at him in surprise, a very broad grin spreading across his face, “I’ll gladly pour your wine tonight, signore.” He playfully steals another kiss from his tempting lips. He doesn’t know how many days they’ve got left but surely they might be tempting ones, distracting him from what is beginning to feel very much like certain doom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mio angelo - my angel  
> bel ragazzo - beautiful boy/lad  
> grazie - thank you  
> Il piacere è tutto mio - the pleasure is mine


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Several weeks later. Leonardo da Vinci, Zoroaster, Nico and Riario have all survived the trials of the Vault of Heavens and are on their return to Italy. But a different type of storm is brewing.
> 
> ** chapter repost 10 Sept **

Leonardo observes Nico and the count from afar. He had noticed something very profound had changed between those two since he'd lost sight of his pupil in Italy. But it's only now, now that they are no longer in lethal danger chasing a relic that was not even there, that he truly has the opportunity to study their interaction more keenly. And it is obvious that they've become close… friends?

No. It's more than that. If he wouldn't know better he could swear there was something else going on between them. Lingering glances, the count's hand on Nico's back, almost on his arse, whispered words only for their ears to hear.  
  
Leo shakes his head because he just can't believe that. Nico had hated the count to the point of wanting to kill him. Surely it cannot be that now he is …  
  
The engineer stops his torturous thoughts. He doesn't want to admit to himself  that he is jealous. But Nico was _his_. His friend, his pupil, his novizio. Now he's tending to the injured Captain General all the time, almost like a page boy.

He scrunches up his nose, pinching the bridge, forcing his eyes away from the two men and onto his still blank page. But even if his eyes are diverted, he cannot tear his thoughts away so easily. _Fuck, I have got to know!_  
  
When Nico finally leaves the count's side Leo jumps up almost as soon as his apprentice is out of sight, determined to bring light to this.  
  
He sits down beside Riario who’s resting his broken leg on a barrel. “You and Nico have become real close,” he says without beating around the bush, “I’m very intrigued by that.”  
  
Riario cocks his head at his travelling companion. The trials of the Vault of Heaven had created a mutual respect and trust between them, but not to the point he had expected Da Vinci to pry into his personal affairs  “You are?” he answers coolly.  
  
"Well …” Leonardo coughs, “before all this… Back in Italy I mean… He wanted you you dead… " _as much as I did,_ Leonardo thinks, surprised that those feelings had changed for him as well. He takes out his notebook and pen again and starts to scribble down some notes regarding his attempted repairs of the golden head on one page, alternating that with drawing the white, puffy clouds in the sky on the other, feeling awkward, looking at his sheets of paper and Riario quickly in turn.  
  
“Hm,” the count nods with a smirk, reluctant to be the one to give away more. He looks curiously at the scribbles in the notebook. “So did you…” he voices what the other is thinking.  
  
Leonardo looks at Riario sideways, scratching his own nose with his pen. "Yes, right. So what happened? Did he save your life then as you saved mine?"  
  
“Perhaps we saved each other's,” Girolamo smirks at the artist’s questions. “As you and I did…” he adds thickly, giving the artist a wink and grinning as he watches Leo blush when he quickly averts his eyes. “Why do you care?” he tilts his head questioningly. “I have not corrupted him against you if that's your concern, artista.” He looks at Da Vinci with a dark, unblinking stare, enjoying the challenge that is sparking up between them somehow. _Is he jealous because Nico is my pupil now?_ Then an even more wicked thought lights up. _Does he have an interest in the boy?_  
  
“I know you haven’t,” Leonardo huffs, “Maybe I don’t like to share him,” he suddenly chuckles nervously. “He seems to have gained more confidence in himself with you. And better fighting skills, I have to admit.” He looks out over the ocean thoughtfully, “I’m glad you saved each other’s lives.”  
  
Girolamo smiles happily at those compliments. He follows Leonardo's gaze across the vast expanse of water. “I know you are fond of him. As am I,” he smiles. “Nico is very talented. There is a treasure of intellect, skill and talent behind that angelic face that needs nurturing. I… wish I had had someone to tutor me at that age,” he admits.  
  
Leonardo looks up sharply at that, studying those normally stoic features. They now have a slightly softer edge to it. The tanned skin and slightly grown out hair makes Riario look more alive, more human? “Sixtus… he just got you out of the monastery to leave you to your own devices?” Da Vinci frowns, wondering if Riario is an autodidact just like himself. He stops his scribbling, waiting curiously for the answer.  
  
Riario lets his gaze wander. He has found confiding in Leonardo surprisingly comfortable since their trials. Between him and Nico appear to have a genuine interest in him that has been so alien since Zita died. “Sixtus taught me certain things,” he answers. “As did my uncle. But I felt more comfortable seeking my own answers.” He looks up at Da Vinci. “My father's views are… unbalanced. And my interests exceeded his need for them.”  
  
“I see.” A smile tugs at the corners of Leonardo’s mouth. “I, too, prefered to find my own answers.” He reluctantly looks away from Riario’s inspiring face towards the ocean again, “Andrea taught me lots, but not necessarily the things I wanted to know in the first place,” he chuckles, thinking fondly of his father figure.  
  
“You and I are both fortunate,” Riario remarks, “to have been given the opportunities we've had despite our heritage. But Nico has a chance to do better, to achieve a greatness that is out of our reach, unrestricted by the sins of our fathers. You must not hold him back,” he states firmly.  
  
“I do not hold him back!” Leonardo declares a little too loudly, going back to his calculations, frustration creeping in again. It occurs to him that he likes to have Riario’s attention all to himself. The count bringing Nico up during their interesting conversation frustrates him and yet it reminds him of why he came over in the first place, causing the jealousy inside of him to flare even brighter.  
  
“The way you talk about him… you make him sound like he's your lover or something. If I didn't know it would go against all of your beliefs, I would say you have lain with him..” he says in a mocking tone although his heart is racing. “Well, have you?” he adds sharply when Riario just smirks uncommittedly, rather than vehemently dismiss the accusation.

Riario laughs at the inappropriate question that seems to have come out of nowhere. Yet he is hardly surprised that Da Vinci has so little understanding of common decency that he had the guts to ask it. “Yes,” he answers as directly as the question itself. “Not that that is any of your business.”

Leonardo recoils. _Fuck!_ While he had been occupied with convincing their new crew about the fact that they were not sailing off the end of the earth and repainting star cards, discovering a completely different view of earth and her place in the universe, Riario and Nico must have had all that amount of time to explore different things too …   
  
He feels deeply hurt in a way he has not experienced before and he isn’t even sure why. Sure, there is the question of Nico's loyalty. After all the young apprentice had changed sides without knowing what had become of his maestro and despite thinking that Riario had killed Zo. Yes, that hurts, even though Da Vinci himself has now learnt to see there is more to the count than meets the eye.

More to the count… He swallows as those infinitely dark eyes look back at him, unblinking. Waiting for a response.

_What response? What can I possibly say to that?!_

Without a word he gets up and walks away from the count, gloomily, ripping the nice cloud picture out of his notebook, scrunching it into a ball and tossing it into the sea.  
  
Riario stares after the genius, a little taken aback by his apparent strength of feelings about that revelation. _Is he jealous?_ He thinks about what Leonardo had said, _maybe I don't like to share him_. Nico had said that he had never done it with a man before. But had Da Vinci wanted to? Then why hadn't he? Florence made no secrets of its loose morality and it was common enough for an apprentice to repay their maestro for his tutelage in such a way that it was practically expected. It makes Riario curious about what goes on in Leonardo's mind. And in his heart.

  
+++   
  
Leonardo storms into the little cabin in which Zo and Nico are playing cards. His intention had been to tell Nico that he is out of his mind and out of his depth but when he actually stands in front of them both, looking flushed and agitated, his mind is racing far too fast for his tongue to catch up with and it's just gibberish that comes out.   
  
Both Nico and Zo look up at Da Vinci as if a storm has broken out.   
  
“Maestro?” Nico asks a little concerned, wondering what his two teachers had talked about on the deck of the ship.   
  
“You!” Leonardo points his finger at Zo. “Did you kn-know about this?!”   
  
Zo blinks, dumbfounded, "Know about what?"   
  
"No, he does not," Nico says softly, feeling a little embarrassed, "If you mean what I think you mean.” He uncomfortably flits his glance between his cards, Zo and Da Vinci and back again, “About me and Count Riario."   _Had I gone too far after all? But I thought we were dying..._   
  
"What about you and Count Riario?" Zo looks suspiciously from Nico to Leo and back, thumbing his cards.   
  
Leonardo stares at Nico, debating whether to slap his apprentice to his senses or what. Truth is, he's not actually sure what he's most upset about. The fact that Nico had slept with his enemy. _Once_ enemy. The fact that neither he nor Zo had realised it - and that he feels like a total idiot now! Or actually, that he is jealous. And not of Riario for sleeping with Nico, but of Nico sleeping with.... _Fuck!_ “Shit fucking shit, Nico what the hell?!” he exclaims in frustration, pacing furiously.   
  
Nico looks at Zo unsurely. Normally his friend defends him when Leonardo gets into one of his tantrums, but that is when Nico has not got quite the right item from one of Da Vinci’s many shopping lists. This time, however, he is not so sure that Zoroaster will not twist his ear himself once he finds out what the maestro is raging about.   
  
“I thought you were both dead!” he says defensively. “I thought I was going to die! Girolamo was there for me, there with me. And I didn't want to die a fucking virgin, alright!”   
  
Zo splutters the wine he’s had just sipped across the table, staring at Nico wide eyed. “What?!”   
  
“So it's true then!” Leonardo hisses. He had hoped still that Riario was just winding him up. But Nico's face tells him enough. “H-how do you go from hating someone to the point of wanting him dead to s-s-sleeping with him?!” _How indeed_ , he asks himself much the same question, knowing full well that his own feelings for the count have drastically changed over the time they'd been in the jungle.   
  
“I sincerely second that question,” Zo says exasperatedly, understanding Leo’s agitation now. “You … fucked with Riario?! Are you out of your mind?! When did this happen?!”   
  
“You don’t want him dead anymore either,” Nico avoids Zo's questions and addresses Leonardo, very aware how angry he’s made his maestro. “So I hardly think you can be one to judge,” he stands up to his teacher for the first time in his life.   
  
“How dare you!” Leo gasps in outrage. “I'm not the one who jumped into bed with the man who tortured you, who tried to kill Zo,  who had tried to kill me!“ _Shit, but I want to. Why do I care for this man again?!_ Leonardo feels like he's not reprimanding his pupil but himself for his own warped feelings.   
  
It wasn’t actually a bed... “He taught me things I could never have survived without! Things you never told me! Zo and I would still be slaves and you would be dead if it wasn't for the skills Riario taught me!” Nico yells now.   
  
“Nico is right,” Zo has to admit. “He first fooled even me but then got the upper hand over our guard very quickly.” He clears his throat, “Better than I could have done…”   
  
Nico calms down a little over Zo’s praise, looking challenging still at Leonardo. “And anyway, if you wouldn’t have left us without a word in Florence, Zo wouldn’t have been almost killed, I would not have been Girolamo’s prisoner…” Nico decides to throw all his grievances down as the opportunity is there. Really Leonardo has got himself to blame for what happened as much as Riario and him.   
  
Leonardo trembles with rage. Not just because of Nico’s betrayal and his accusations but because he's struggling to form a reasonable counter argument. “I had to go back. I had to save Lorenzo! The barge! I asked you to stall the barge! I never told you or Zo to take on Count Riario! If you would just have listened to me…!” His head feels like it might explode and he knows reason is failing him as his emotions get the better of him when he hisses, “You are MY pupil and you will NOT sleep with him again, you hear me. Not under my watch!” He looks pleadingly to his friend. “Zo, tell him!”   
  
Despite his own uneasiness Zo actually starts to laugh, “You do sound like the jealous wife, Leo.”   
  
“I am your pupil, yes, but that does not give you the right to tell me who I can or can't sleep with. I am an adult and can do the things I want to do,” Nico says bravely. He throws down his playing cards, grabs the wine skin and storms out.   
  
“You're choosing his side now?” Leo pokes Zo in the chest. “You of all people, you hate that man!”   
  
“Yes, and I still do,” He looks at Leonardo intensely, “But you should hear yourself. Who are you jealous of? Riario or Nico?”   
  
Leonardo gapes at Zo, feeling caught out.  But then of course Zoroaster would have seen it, the way he had become infatuated with Count Riario during their adventure. Truth is he had begun to think that the Captain General had started to feel the same about him. He thought that those lingering glances were reciprocated. And now he feels utterly foolish. “I don't know,” he sighs as he sinks onto a chair.   
  
+++   
  
Nico crouches down beside Riario and checks his bandages, “Can I bring you anything else?” he asks, still not sure how to behave around the man.   
  
After they’d fallen asleep together on the Basilisk after that one night of unbridled passion, thinking it would be their last hours, they had not been intimate again and the count had never made any further advances. He was friendly though and had his hands fleetingly on him from time to time but that was it. Nico did not dare to make a move on his own. But Leonardo going completely crazy over something that had happened only once weeks ago makes him ponder what comes next.   
  
He’s devoted to Leonardo Da Vinci, but his body desires the count who’d taken his virginity. What a conflict.   
  
“I take it that conversation did not go well…” Girolamo cocks his head at Nico. Although he had not been able to hear what was being said the raised voices and Nico storming out were evident enough.   
  
Nico shakes his head. After a few moments of useless straightening the cotton here and there he looks up at the count from under his curls, “He seems more jealous than angry.”   
  
Riario's nods slowly. “He wants you to be his alone …” he observes quietly, his own conversation with Leonardo echoing in his head - perhaps I don't like sharing him.   
  
“Yes, he just stated that loud and clear, with Zo as a witness,” Nico says confused. “I’m his pupil and not supposed to… “ he looks up boldly into the dark eyes of his former captor, “Sleep with you again.”   
  
Riario smirks at that. “I was under the understanding that Signore Da Vinci disapproved of the concept of slavery…” And smiles at Nico and gently brushes his hand through Nico's golden hair. “I think you are old and wise enough to make your own choices.”   
  
Nico started to laugh at the concept of slavery but quickly grows serious again, “He puzzles me. I thought he doesn’t want me in that way?” He leans into the long hoped for touch, moistening his lips.   
  
“I think Da Vinci has spent too long stroking his own ego,” Riario says, smiling at the gentle touch. “And he treats those around him like trinkets. He should take better care of his treasures.”   
  
“I don’t know,” Nico considers this, smiling at the comparison of treasures, his fingers stroking circles around his patient’s knee cap. Leonardo’s possessiveness over him coming so very unexpected, it’s making his head spin.   
  
“Nevermind what Da Vinci wants. What do you want, Niccolò? You came here to tend to me even though your maestro disapproves of our closeness.”   
  
“I want to be close to you,” Nico whispers. He feels himself blush and a shiver runs down his spine at the softly spoken words in Riario’s deep voice. “I like tending to you...Girolamo,” he whispers hoarsely.   
  
“I like that too,” Riario slowly brushes his thumb along his bottom lip as he keeps his dark gaze fixed on Nico. The younger man’s sultry tone makes his breath waiver.   
  
He had enjoyed their passionate encounter, more than he dared to admit. But it had very much been a heat of the moment expression. He had appreciated having Nico close thereafter, but events had quickly overtaken matters, occupying his mind and body in other ways.   
  
Now, however, the decision to pursue their physical attraction feels heavier. There is not the desperation brought on by impending death. And although he thinks Da Vinci's raging is absurd, he is surprised that he feels somewhat uncomfortable going directly against the other man's wishes.   
  
This is not about Leonardo though, he reminds himself. If the genius wants Nico's devotion and attention in this way he has to tell him so himself. Until then it is none of his business what happens between him and Nico.   
  
“Perhaps you can tend to me in other ways…” he whispers, curiously testing whom the boy's loyalties lie with now.   
  
Nico swallows audibly. The count’s thumb on his lip had sent tendrils of arousal through his cock. “I’d love to,” he says under his breath, not caring if Leonardo will throw another tantrum. He’ll always be there for the maestro to help him with his work. There was a time he had prayed for Leonardo to look at him the way he looked at his few male models, but since he never did, he had given up a long time ago. So he won’t start hoping again just because Da Vinci had demanded of him something in rage.     
  
The count is pleased with that response, feeling the pleasurable heaviness of desire now settle in the pit of his stomach. For a moment he had wondered if the boy would lose his nerve at his proposal and decide against upsetting his maestro. But his blonde angel is still there, smiling up at him, cheeks already rosy with nervous desire.   
  
Nico gets up and makes sure the door is locked before he kneels in front of the count’s chair again just as he had before. “Is your leg not bothering you?”   
  
“Your maestro managed to concoct something to ease the pain earlier. Before he flew into a rage,” Girolamo snorts, wondering if Da Vinci will make him suffer for this betrayal now or even poison him but he decides to take things as they come. “It will not stop me from taking care of you, mio angelo, we may just have to be a little ... creative.”   
  
Nico smiles at that, swallowing a heavy lump in his throat as he lets his hand slide onto the other’s knee and slowly up the thigh of his healthy leg. “You taught me to be creative,” Nico smirks a little devilishly.   
  
“Indeed,” the count grins back. “And here we both are to tell the tale because of it.” Girolamo pushes Nico's chin up gently, tilting his head slightly as he looks into those pupils blown wide with lust. “I'm glad you are here, Niccolò.”   
  
“I… I liked what you and I did,” Nico admits shyly. “And Leonardo is not my lover so this isn’t betrayal,” he defends his actions, letting his hand travel upwards and inwards, closer to Riario’s crotch, holding the count’s dark gaze.   
  
Riario just nods, dragging his fingers through those beautiful curls. There is a slight hesitation there though, that actually surprises him. Nico may not feel like this is betrayal and yet Nico mentioning Da Vinci… He had seen the glances Leonardo had been giving him since their first trials in the Vault of Heaven; glances he had returned. They had grown close, forced to trust each other literally with their lives, and it had created this unimaginable bond between them. Am I doing this for Nico or because I enjoy the fact that Leonardo is jealous of it? He wants to enjoy Nico's attention for the right reasons and yet he cannot completely put the other man who had caught his eye out of his head.   
  
He pushes his inner debate to the back of his mind though when Nico cups him through his trousers. Regardless of his feelings for Da Vinci he does want to be intimate with his young admirer tonight and give him his undivided attention, urging for the gentle warmth turning into passionate heat.   
  
Nico is feeling very bold tonight and slowly starts to pull at the button of Riario’s trousers, all the while looking at him, licking his tongue over his bottom lip invitingly. His cock straining against his own garments.   
  
“Beautiful…” Riario breathes heavily as he sinks down a little more in his chair, spreading his legs a little wider as Nico crawls between them. His stomach is fluttering with arousal at the sight of that alone, the contrast of Nico's golden locks against his black trousers.   
  
Nico sighs as the count moves towards him, showing his interest. He can even see before his very eyes how Girolamo’s cock is swelling in his confines. His hands get drawn to that and he hesitantly traces the outlines of that growing bulge.   
  
Riario impatiently pulls his trousers open and pulls out his heavy member, staring at Nico through his fringe, his eyes clouded with lust. “Il mio amante,” he grunts softly.   
  
Nico’s heart swells at these words and he stares at Riario’s cock with his pupils wide with lust. It’s one thing to have his own in his hand but this ... “Gorgeous,” he mutters and quickly unbuttons his own trousers, feeling trapped all of a sudden. He bends forward as his mouth is watering and swipes his tongue across Girolamo’s pulsing vein, from bottom to tip, watching his expression closely as he does so.   
  
Girolamo gasps in pleasant surprise. The sensation is as extraordinary as the image. He had silently hoped but not dared ask for such an act of turpitude. “Bless you, my Niccolò,” he groans, pushing his hips up a little to beg for more.   
  
Nico gets spurred on by the immediate reaction. He hadn’t been sure if he should do what his first impulse had told him, but now he is. He wraps his hand tightly around the count’s member and lets his tongue play some more.   
  
“Fuck….” Girolamo pants, closing his eyes to focus all his senses on that extraordinary sensation. He digs his fingers into his head of golden curls, his other grabbing the arm of his chair tight. This is beyond his wildest, dirtiest dreams and he has a hard time not to force his cock down the boy's throat, moaning pleadingly.   
  
Nico moves a little, getting inspired by those agile fingers in his hair. What if...He swirls his tongue around that tempting cock head and quickly sucks it into his mouth. The action again, lets his own cock tingle with pleasure.   
  
“Lord Jesus Christ!” Riario curses, thinking that surely he will go to hell for the sodomy more so than his taking the lord's name in vain. But he cannot let go, doesn't want to stop. The profane actions are silencing his morality as his entire being seems to centre in his cock. “Nico, yes!” he calls out.   
  
+++   
  
Leonardo’s brow furrows so deeply that it distorts his face into a dark grimace that makes Zo jump more than the noise that came to them from the other cabin.   
  
Nico, Nico… Zo thinks, taking a big swig of his wine, what have you done now? He readies himself for Leonardo’s outburst in whatever form it may come.     
  
“Did you hear that?” Leonardo hisses unnecessarily. “I'm going to fucking kill the both of them!”   
  
“No you won’t,” Zo says calmly, “Have some wine.” He shoves a freshly filled tankard towards Leonardo. “You never had eyes for Nico in that way, why are you so upset now? It’s not as if you still see Riario as the enemy either, so what’s the problem?” he tries to distract his friend from going into the other cabin and make a complete fool of himself.   
  
The artist grinds his teeth, not wanting to admit to himself let alone Zoroaster why he's so upset. “So what, you are telling me you are totally fine with them… them… .Raaaaaaaaah!” Leo throws his tankard across the room so that it explodes against the wall, leaving wine dripping down the partition between the two cabins.   
  
Zo lifts an eyebrow, "It's their business..." he sips his wine slowly, "Unless...well," he clears his throat, looking for something to defend himself with since Leo won't like his answer, "You're interested to do the deed with one of them yourself…” or both..., he adds in his head as he still has not really worked out who Leonardo is chasing after.   
  
Leonardo watches the wine drip onto the floor, the patterns creating interesting images. He's heard Zo's comment alright but he isn't ready to respond to that challenge just yet.   
  
Suddenly he jumps up. “I'm going to bed,” he states.   
  
"You need a hand from a friend?" Zo asks socially, as if they're talking about building a new device.   
  
Leonardo raises an eyebrow. They had not screwed with each other in at least two years and it kind of feels like they've grown out of that now as others have come on the scene. But then a wicked smirk slides across his face. What they can do, so can we! “Sure,” he nods, just as casually. But he already knows he's going to feel it in the morning, and not just the two bottles of wine that he grabs on his way out.   
  
+++   
  
Nico almost chokes on Riario's cock as he irritatedly pushes himself upwards at the noise and the heavy thump against the thin wooden wall. They both grab for their knives, even in the aroused state they're in.   
  
“Fucking Da Vinci!” the count snarls under his breath. The moment of bliss is well and truly ruined and on top of that in his reflex he's put too much weight on his bad leg and pain shoots through it.   
  
He turns back to Nico, even more determined now to make the boy scream in pleasure just to wind his maestro up. He sheathes his dagger again and removes his belt, throwing it on the floor, followed by his shirt.   
  
“Let me help you to the bed,” Nico lies his arm around Riario’s waist. His arousal renewing when he feels the smooth sweaty skin beneath his palm. He can’t help a grin at their reaction and state of undress when they were both ready for hand to hand combat.   
  
A part of him is a little worried about his maestro though. What had just happened in the other cabin? Zo is with him, so everything will be fine, he muses.   
  
“If you don't want to carry on,” Riario says softly when he sees the worry briefly in his younger lover’s eyes, “I'd understand.”   
  
“But I do,” Nico helps the count to sit on the bed. “Would you like to lie down so I can spoil you further?” he winks naughtily, tracing Girolamo's half hard cock with his fingertips.   
  
But Girolamo pulls Nico next to him, the interruption having sparked his desire to take Nico and leave his mark on him. He locks his mouth over Nico's, momentarily grimacing as he remembers where those lips were just a moment ago. He distracts himself as he lets his hands roam greedily over Nico's chest and down towards his hard on.     
  
Nico groans into the kiss, swirling his tongue around Girolamo’s the same way he’d just done it with his cock. The count’s hands seem to leave a trace of fire on his skin. Everything trembling and pleasurably tingling. He slides his hands up and down over his lover’s back, tracing a scar here and there, storing that information away for later.   
  
He waits in anticipation for that hand around his cock.   
  
Riario quickly makes away with the remaining items of clothing between them, all the while moving his hands over every bit of skin he exposes, reverently caressing every part of Nico except there were he knows he is most desperate to be touched. When he finally gives in Nico is a puddle of pleasure under him already and he grins in satisfaction as the young apprentice mewls delightfully when he grabs his hot manhood in his fist.   
  
Nico moans loudly, bucking into the delightful touch. His fingers entangling into the bed covers. The pressure of Girolamo's fingers is just right, the roughness of his palm oh so stimulating. He moves his hip back and forth a little, begging for a steady rhythm.   
  
Girolamo pushes Nico's legs apart and teases his free hand over the other's hidden treasure, rubbing his own erection against Nico's thigh.   
  
“Fuck!” Nico yells as his newly discovered erogenous zone is so gently touched, as he feels Girolamo’s hot cock slide over his skin. He lifts his hand and pushes the other’s fringe out of his forehead to see the desire in his dark eyes. He never would have believed in his wildest dreams that being that close to count Riario would make his blood boil in pleasure.     
  
“Ride me,” Riario groans wantonly, needing to be buried inside that tight heat so desperately now.   
  
Nico swallows, for a moment wondering how that is going to work, if he is that acrobatic. But his pucker is twitching and the sight of Girolamo’s manhood standing proud, heavy and invitingly, lets his doubts fade. A grin spreads over his face as he reaches towards the little table that stands right beside the bed and scoops some lard into his hand.   
  
Riario nods, adjusting his position so he lies comfortably on his back. His leg is throbbing slightly, but he is able to push the pain down.   
  
He sighs in admiration when Nico straddles him, loving the contradiction between the angelic innocence of his looks and the wicked action as the apprentice prepares himself. His own cock twitches eagerly and he reaches for Nico's again, massaging him firmly.   
  
Nico hisses in pleasure as those fingers sneak around his cock again. He smears some of the lard onto that gorgeous dick and then brings himself awkwardly into position, holding his lover’s manhood in place so he can lower himself onto the tip. He groans loudly as his arse muscles give and he feels the count’s hotness press inside.   
  
Riario teaches Nico a wealth of profanity when the younger man sinks onto his hardness that would surely make all the angels in heaven blush. He lets the other's shaft go for a moment as he grabs Nico's hips to help guide him down slowly. The young apprentice impresses him once again, both with his eagerness and his determination.   
  
“Piccolo diavolo,” he grins as Nico takes all of him with surprising ease.   
  
Nico moans and grins at the same time, sweat running down his temples since his body still has to get used to the sudden fullness. He swears in the same colourful language his teacher just did. “That’s so good, Girolamo,” he gasps as he experimentally squeezes his inner muscles, his hands roaming across the count’s flat stomach.   
  
“Unbelievably so…” Girolamo strokes Nico's thighs and then reaches for his dick again, helping the other relax through the stretch of his back entrance. He himself can scarcely imagine what it must feel like but Nico seems to enjoy it and so he slowly rocks his hips a little.   
  
Nico screws his eyes shut for a moment as the pressure is a little too much but then he slowly starts to move up and down. As he looks at his lover again, all those muscles playing in the dance of love making -biceps, pectorals, abs, glistening with a fine sheen of sweat- he licks his lips, "Screw me, Captain General."   
  
Girolamo laughs at the irony of that. He should be wielding the sword of liturgy against this very perversion, not indulging in it himself. And yet so far away from Rome this feels like a blessing rather than original sin. And so he obliges, as much as he's able, pushing himself into that tight hole in a steadfast rhythm that sends them both in a frenzy.   
  
Nico moans some unintelligible words and syllables as they meet in a ferocious pace. Even with his injured leg the count is pushing up into him like a mad man and he’s riding his cock as hard as possible. He’d never thought he’d enjoy being sodomised that much, but Girolamo hits something inside of him so perfectly, it lets his body melt into a puddle of goo. His climax is building rapidly now and his vision blurs.   
  
As the count senses Nico's loss of control is getting closer he boldly starts to jerk him off again in long sure strokes interchanged by quick bursts. It's curious to pull off another man without being able to feel the effect of his hand and he finds he has to learn how to do this to another, listening carefully to Nico's verbal cues as to which he likes best.   
  
He is of no doubt though when he gets it right as within a split second of feeling Nico's inner muscles contract strongly around his own dick he's treated to the splashes of hot semen across his stomach and chest.   
  
“Oh Niccolò,” he pants, trying to drive up the speed to follow his lover over the edge.   
  
The image of his seed on Girolamo's golden skin makes Nico move that little faster to help him to his orgasm as well. He works his channel muscles again, holding on to Riario's arms desperately to not fall over. "Come for me, Girolamo.." he pants.   
  
Girolamo does not hold back as he shouts out his pleasure. In the back of his mind he knows he's trying to prove a point to a third, not even in this room with them. He grabs Nico's thighs to the point of bruising as he spills his seed inside of his fallen angel, sweat pouring off him as he gives him his all.   
  
Nico joins in the loud mating ritual. He's swept away by the way his former enemy and now lover lets his guard down completely. He locks his gaze with the man that writhes underneath him, shaking and trembling himself like a leaf in a storm.   
  
+++   
  
Leo collapses onto his stomach. He feels bruised and thoroughly fucked, just as he had ordered his best friend throughout their sexual sparring in low grunts and pitched wails. “Grazie,” he mutters into the pillows.   
  
"You're welcome," Zo slaps Leo on his arse and rolls on his back, breathing heavily. "Thanks for the exercise," he chuckles playfully. In truth his heart goes out to his friend though. He doesn't really know what's going on in that genius head of him but Nico and Riario fucking clearly bothers him lots otherwise he wouldn't have been asked to top Leonardo and kind of punish him.   
  
Maybe he still feels sorry that he left him to be taken prisoner by Riario and now doesn't know how to get him back on his side?   
  
"Why are you so upset about Nico being with him?" he dares to ask, "You never showed any interest like that in him in the first place when he was all yours." He crosses his arms behind his head, well aware that he might be punched for a question that is none of his business yet again.   
  
Leonardo groans. He'd hoped to just fall asleep in the bliss of cheap wine and a fantastic orgasm. He really wishes his friend would just drop it but he knows that Zo is like a dog with a bone once he's got his mind set to getting to the bottom of something.   
  
“It's not just about Nico,” he huffs very quietly, keeping his face buried in the pillows, almost in the hope that Zo didn't actually hear that admission.   
  
Zoroaster’s eyebrows shoot up and he thinks he didn’t hear right. He swallows, dragging his semen stained hands across his face absentmindedly. Holy Fuck! He really wants the count?   
  
He looks at the bare back of his friend and decides to not torture him any further. Instead he rubs his hand over his shoulder in a comforting way and then turns on his side, willing sleep to come after having had fantastic sex he almost had forgotten about existed.   
  
Leonardo sighs under the gentle touch - such a contrast to their rough intercourse. He prays for sleep to come fast and take away his heartache. Before he starts sobbing like a girl over a lost love that was never his in the first place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mio angelo - my angel  
> Il mio amante - my lover  
> piccolo diavolo - little devil


	4. Chapter 4

“You think they heard us?” Nico asks softly as he renews the count’s bloody bandages in the early morning hours. The wound hadn’t taken so well to their hot sex.

“Does it bother you if they did?” Girolamo smiles, appreciating how much Nico takes care of all his needs.

"No," Nico shrugs and grins, "I guess the whole ship heard us." He sits down on the bed beside the count and clears his throat. He'd been lying awake for a while, thoughts swirling in his head. "I… I can't decide who to follow now," he says, looking down on his hands, clutching the wash cloth. "You're both my maestros..."

Girolamo tilts his head slightly. “And why do you need to choose?” he asks softly.

Nico looks up in surprise about that question. He didn't dare to hope that Girolamo would see him as his apprentice too. "Well, you're going back to Rome and he's going back to Florence..." he trails off. "But then, maybe he doesn't want me anymore now." He looks the count straight in his eyes as he comes to that conclusion.

Riario thinks about this for a moment. He had thought long and hard about what he would do once they were back in Italy. His world had shifted seismically over the course of their travels. And Rome holds so many bad memories now, not least the death of Zita. But on the other hand he feels compelled to return for those very reasons. Perhaps with the knowledge he's gained, the things he's seen and learned, he can convince his father of his visions. He cannot turn his back on God just because the road is hard and treacherous. There are so many threats to the morality of mankind, from abroad and from within. And so he had already concluded that his only option was to return to the Vatican and continue his divine task of rooting out the evil that snaked through the provinces.

“You should return to Florence,” he states resolutely, if not a little regretfully.

He had given Nico's fate almost as much thought as his own but the conclusion once he'd decided to return to Rome was much easier for his novice. There were many reasons. Nico would shrivel in the confines of the Vatican like a flower in a vase. This was not his path in life, of that the count was certain. But most of all, he will not repeat previous mistakes.

Nico looks away and gets up, busying himself with the bloody linen in the water basin, hiding his upcoming frustration and confusion. After a few moments of composing himself he returns to the bed and lies down beside the count, sliding his hand tentatively across the other’s stomach.

“Can’t… can’t you stay with us in Florence? _”_ he presses his lips against his lover’s bare shoulder, feeling very bold for suggesting that.

“My place is in God's house, Niccolò.” Girolamo actually cringes at the thought of living in Florence, the capital of sin. He folds his arm underneath his lover, pulling him closer. “I'm sure our paths will cross again,” Riario tries to smile. _I will make sure of it._

“What if I come with you to Rome?” Nico blurts out all of a sudden, looking up to catch the other’s reaction.

“No,” Riario shakes his head firmly. “I will not allow it.” _I will not have you anywhere near my father!_ He cups Nico's face as he can sense his upset. “I care too much for you,” he smiles. “I will not clip your wings. Da Vinci will teach you to fly,” he tries to make the boy see that this is for his own good.

Nico presses his lips against Girolamo’s. _I care too much for you._ The tender spoken words take hold in his brain. He caresses that well clipped beard as he pulls back. “He let me fly already,” he chuckles despite his sadness.

After a few moments of them staring at each other he asks, “You don’t want me there because of what happened to your girlfriend?”

“Yes,” Girolamo says. “Besides I do not see liturgy as your path. God has a different plan for you, il mio angelo. You are destined for great things, Nico.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because Da Vinci would not have wasted his time on someone who is not destined to rival him in some way.” Riario pushes himself up now, knowing that they have to face the others at some point.

Nico actually blushes at the compliment. Of course he hadn’t seen it that way. But then, he already rivals Leonardo at this very moment. He’s somehow flattered that Girolamo doesn’t want him in Rome after what happened to the woman he loved. _Does that mean …_ He stops himself before his thoughts get too carried away.

He stands and helps Riario up, “I’m going to make you a crutch.” Nico says to underline the other’s point and to change the subject, talking about parting just feels too unsettling at the moment. He’ll deal with it when the time comes. Their journey has not ended yet. He knows that they’ve still got several weeks to travel.

“Thank you, Nico,” Riario groans softly as a flare of pain shoots up his leg. “Now let us face Da Vinci.” He brushes Nico's cheek again and presses a kiss on his brow. “I have no regrets,” he whispers.

+++

Leo groans in self-pity as he rests his throbbing head in his hands. Every little noise goes through him like a gunshot and he's already emptied his liquid stomach contents, cursing the ship, the sea, the wine, Count Riario and God all at once.

“Maybe a little fresh sea air might help?” Zo half jests half encourages Leo to get out of the muggy cabin. He had drunk his fill of wine too but obviously it doesn’t affect him that much.  

To his surprise his friend nods and drags himself to his feet.

Leo wobbles slightly but then wordlessly makes his way outside, hoping that the wind will clear his head like Zo had suggested.

“Buongiorno, Maestro,” Nico says somewhat awkwardly as he sees his master slowly get onto deck. _He looks like shit,_ he observes, knowing from previous events that the best thing right now is not to speak to him. Still, being so obviously ignored by his master hurts and Nico feels that uncertain sting of guilt again. _Why should I feel guilty? The maestro slept with Lucrezia. And with Zo;_ he's well aware that they have been friends with benefits for a long time. _And of course Jacopo Salterelli. He never considered my feelings when he did and I never expected him to. But now he's making me feel like I've stolen something from him because Girolamo shows an interest in me?_

He sighs but turns on his heels and disappears to brew some herbal tea that may help Da Vinci’s condition. Perhaps when he feels a little better they can talk about this, man to man.

As he finds Zo still in the cabin that is their working space, he asks, “That bad?”

Zo only nods, “I think you and the count have hit a nerve there.”

“But why? Leo never had an interest in me,” Nico says, looking into all the pouches that lie around, sniffing to get the right ingredients.

Zo isn’t sure if he should reveal the truth. He decides to better keep his mouth shut and not reveal Leo’s shocking secret. “I don’t know,” he lies, feeling sorry for Nico. He leans against the wall and watches him.

Nico looks closely at Zoroaster. He's known him practically all his life and every bit about the way he stands and talks tells him something is off, but he cannot tell what exactly. “And you?” he asks a little nervously. “I know you don't really like Count Riario…” He snorts as he thinks how ridiculous that now sounds. _What an understatement! Of course he doesn't like the count, he tried to kill Zo!_ He bites his lip, but holds Zo's gaze.

“Well, my young friend, if you’d enlighten me what transpired between the two of you stuck on that ship together, going from enemies to ...fuck buddies? Lovers? Never mind… I might understand a little better. I really don’t get it Nico and neither does Leo.” Zo tries to stay calm but the way Leonardo lost it last night makes him question Nico’s motives.

Nico smiles at that question, grateful that Zo had asked him, has given him a chance to explain. “He… he showed me the man behind the mask,” he says. “Told me of his loves and his fears. And I  guess… I came to understand where his cruelty comes from. But that there is more to him than that. Everyone sees what he appears to be, but ... only few get to experience who he really is,” he says with an element of pride that Girolamo had allowed him glimpses of the man inside. “I really care for him. And he cares for me.”

Zoroaster looks  in wonder at his young friend, arms crossed over his chest, “Does he now.” He is very doubtful. But then, Riario seems to suddenly get along with Leo too. Is it only him who still doesn’t trust the guy one tiny bit?

Nico feels a sting at that, realising that he takes Zoroaster’s poor opinion of the count very personal. “You know, Zo, I don't actually care whether you like him or not,” he says, sounding much braver and confident than he feels but needing to stick up for the man who has taught him so much. “Yes, he does care for me. I know you are thinking it's all just a ruse, but why would he try and kill you and not me? He didn't have to teach me all the things he taught me. He didn't even have to keep me alive! But instead he taught me more in those couple of months than Leo did in all those years! He acknowledges my potential. And I'm not just his errand boy!” he says more sharply than he had intended. He swallows. Although he meant what he said he does not like speaking badly about his maestro. He knows Leonardo does not mean to neglect him, he is just always so busy with his many crazy, fantastic ideas.

Zo’s eyes bulge out of his head at the passionate speech of Nico. He’s normally so quiet and he never complains and now this? But he’s right in some way though. Sometimes they’re both the errand boys of the already legendary Da Vinci. And he very seldom acknowledges their work behind his grand ideas and it frustrates Zo as well. But still, sleeping with his enemy?

Zo sighs and lets it go. They’re stuck on this goddamn ship for another few weeks and he should actually be grateful that he doesn’t have to look out for both his friends, not getting killed behind his back by the count. Whatever happened on the way and in the New World to them, it can only be for the better. Or at least so he hopes.

  But Nico blinks at Zo when he does not challenge him any further. Talking about Girolamo, about the other side of him, how behind that cruel arrogant front is a caring, intelligent man, makes him realise something. Of course he's seen it but he had tried his hardest to deny it. The way that they looked at each other after their trials in the Vault of Heaven. Trials that he and Zo had not been part of in the same way. And as he really thinks about it they are so alike in so many ways, both the good and the bad.

He feels his stomach lurch unpleasantly and he has to steady himself on the table as he looks at Zo. “The maestro…” he swallows. “It isn't about me, is it?”

Zo asks himself why he always is the one comforting people who are forlornly in love. He sighs and shakes his head. “No,” he grasps Nico’s neck in a friendly gesture, “I’m glad you figured that out for yourself.”

+++

Leonardo follows the bobbing of the waves like a mantra, not sure whether it's soothing or sickening. He feels guilty for ignoring sweet Nico’s greeting but he knows his response would have been none too kind and so it is better that he just bit his tongue. He isn't exactly angry with Nico. Rather he's angry with himself for feeling this way in the first place.

He cringes when he hears the uneven step of the count behind him, his whole body tensing involuntarily.

“Buongiorno, artista,” Riario greets his travelling companion in a low voice, barely audible over the noise of the sea. He’s instantly aware of the slightly greenish tinge to his skin and a smirk pulls at the corners of his mouth. _Must have drowned his anger._

“Did you have fun?” Leonardo grinds his teeth, keeping his gaze on the sea still.

“Nico is very talented,” Riario grins, standing next to Leonardo, holding onto the rail for better balance. He hates being in a weakened state but he has to put up with it for now.

 

Da Vinci scowls, wondering why Riario said that. To wind him up? To hurt him? To brag? Or to entice him?

He shudders when the count steps next to him, seeing his dark frame in his peripheral vision. His own grip on the railing tightens. “I'm glad you think so,” he says disingenuously. “As is Zo,” he adds his own knife stab.

Riario looks sideways at the engineer. Of course he should not be surprised, but he's taken aback by the feeling that that counterattack invokes in him. He takes a moment to try and formulate a response, not used to not having a sharp comment immediately at the ready, but in the end he just nods and makes to leave Da Vinci to his own ponderings.

As Leonardo realises the count is about to turn away from him again, he says hoarsely, his throat hurting from dry-retching half of the morning "For fuck's sake, why don't we just quit beating around the bush?" He turns his head around way too quickly for the state he is in and groans involuntarily, not able to hide it.

“What do you mean?” Riario frowns, pulling his nose up at Leonardo's pathetic state.

Without any further hesitation, Da Vinci grabs Riario's face and presses their lips together, grateful he'd found some peppermint leaves earlier to chew on. His heart races, knowing he might just be fucking up their newly found trust, instead of improve on it.

Riario's good leg almost gives way under him at that unexpected move. He gasps,  for a second or two allowing the kiss he's desired for many nights now, but then pushes the Florentine man back. "Are you out of your mind?" he growls.

"Si!" Leo gasps, not able to let go as quickly as he wanted to at the rejection, steadying himself on the count’s shoulders as the ship dances up and down on the waves. His stomach lurches dangerously. _Fuck I_ am _out of my mind, to do this still half drunk._

The count has to hold on to Leo as his legs are not steady enough either, if not due to the self induced ailment of the artist. “What about Nico!” he hisses as they awkwardly sway together in a dizzying dance.

Leo swallows, “I’ll make you forget about Nico…” he says sultrily and leans forward again.

Riario doesn't know whether to smirk at that or slap Leonardo for saying it. He grabs the artist's upper arm in a hard grip and silently drags him across the deck best he can in his disabled state, not wanting to have this conversation out in the open.

As soon as they are in his cabin and he's closed the door behind them he pushes Leonardo to his knees and dunks his half drunken head in the bucket of cold water Nico had brought him to wash. “You're a fool, Da Vinci!” he hisses, pulling the artist up by his hair only to push him under again. “Do not insult me speaking those words with your intoxicated tongue!”

Leonardo splutters and fights for air. His alcohol dulled brain hadn’t seen _that_ coming. Once the cold water has awakened him, he shoves the count off him, throwing his wet hair back to spray droplets everywhere. “Insulting you?” he still has a problem to get his thoughts into the right order.

“Why do you tempt me?” Riario says through gritted teeth as he lowers himself awkwardly onto a chair.

Da Vinci’s heart cramps as he sees the pain Riario is clearly hiding beneath the surface. _Fuck!_ But he made him so angry just now, he doesn’t deserve any compassion.

“Tempt you?” the artist scrubs his face with his hands and steps closer to the man who makes his insides boil with all kinds of emotions, “ _You_ were the one who tempted me!” He pokes him in the chest, “All your confessions, opening up to me, making me believe you trust me!”

“Sit down,” Riario orders coolly, holding the younger man's gaze without responding to his angry accusations.

Leonardo glares at the count but strangely does as he’s ordered.

“I’ve felt your eyes on me all the time, count, don’t think I didn’t notice that you were studying me.” He drums his fingers against his thigh in a very fast rhythm, his nervousness increasing, “And then I find out you and _Nico!_ N… Nico and… and you have… are…! Fuck!”

“You look a disgrace,” Riario reprimands his agitated visitor, ignoring his tirade. He puts an orange on the table in front of Leonardo and studies him closely. “Pull yourself together.”

The engineer shoves the fruit away from him again with one finger, feeling his gut clench at the sight of it. He takes a few steadying breaths, knowing he behaves childish and suddenly realises he’s made a complete fool of himself in front of the man he’s holding in such high regard now.

To gather his thoughts he looks around the room. Nothing indicates of the encounter the nightly noises belonged to. Everything looks neat and as tidy as possible under the circumstances.

Leonardo finally tries to stop the swirling thoughts in his head. His fingers are twitching without his pen and note book. He takes the orange after all and twirls it round and round in the palm of his hand.

“Now,” Riario says calmly when the Florentine man appears to have come to his senses, “why does it concern you that Nico seeks my company?” He purposefully steers away from the comments Leonardo had made about what lies thick as honey between the two of them.

"Nico is..." _very dear to me, "_ MY pupil. He works very hard. He’s smart… I’ve come to like him very much over the years..." Leo knows that he does beat around the bush now again, "But what about _you_ and Nico?" He focuses his glance on the man who’s sitting opposite him, his voice sharp.

“Your pupil…” Riario smirks, crossing his arms, “... or your servant? What have you taught Nico in all those years that he did your bidding, that he ran at your every command, put himself at risk for your experiments and inventions? The boy worships you like a demigod but your schemes were too important to rescue him from the hands of your sworn enemy. Did you even care whether I would kill him? You don't deserve his devotion,” he challenges.

Leo is up on his feet yet again and his hands around Riario’s throat in an instant, the orange rolling into a corner, "How dare you!" _Zo was with him! "_ I couldn’t… I wasn’t… " his thoughts and the words he wants to spit at the count get tangled on the way from his head to his mouth yet again. "Fuck!" he releases the man he’d kissed only moments before and stumbles back. "I needed to invent something first to go after him, damn you! No schemes. You’d do everything for Rome and I needed to save Florence!" He snaps his mouth shut, burying his head in his hands.

As the words Riario had said get through his first rage he thinks, _some of that is right though… I almost poisoned Nico…_

Riario doesn't move, just watches Da Vinci beat himself up, savouring the moment. He understands the point da Vinci had made about Rome and Florence and he actually has a great deal of respect for that. So eventually he takes pity on him. “I will not stand between you,” he says softly. “But it was Nico who made the first move, not I.” His lip twitches in a smug half smile.

"Tsssss!" Leonardo wants to explode right now, "Why does no one get it?! This is _not_ about Nico!" he gestures between them, feeling like a true idiot, "Why… why do you think I fucking _kissed YOU?!"_

The count grins widely at that. “I know.” He pulls himself to his feet and takes a step towards the engineer, grabbing his neck and treating him to a bruising kiss of his own. “But you were too stubborn to admit it,” he whispers against those parched lips before releasing the other man just as quickly again. “And Nico got there first.”

Leonardo blinks, licking his lips, whispering anxiously, "What does that mean?"

“What do you want from me, artista? Nico has been good to me. Would you see me throw him out of my bed to make space for you?”

Leonardo’s eyes grow wide at that admission and question. He’s tempted to run out and slam the door behind him but Riario stands in his way. He feels angry and devastated all at once.

"Why did you flirt with me then?" he asks softly, his fighter’s instinct crumbling. He’s tapping a nervous rhythm on the table now.

 _Touché._ Riario walks towards the cabin bed and sits down. “You fascinate me,” he admits. “Have done from the moment I met you. A part of me loathes you for your arrogance and your utter disregard for what I value beyond all else. And yet,” he takes a deep breath, “another part of me admires you.” He raises his eyes to meet Da Vinci's. “And desires you. Do you have any idea what it took for me to admit that to myself let alone you?”

Leonardo thinks he must be gaping very stupidly at the man of his interest. _Desires you._ Did he actually hear right? Did the man of the Church just say that to him? The man who he thinks was involved in his sodomy trial _._ He shoves these thoughts away. A lot has changed since then. He steps towards the bed and kneels in front of Riario, so that they’re face to face.

“I desire you too,” Leo gently caresses the count’s jawline, “and at the same time I find you infuriating,” he chuckles and brushes his lips softly across the other’s moustache. He traces his tongue across those parched lips, one drunkenness being exchanged for another.

Lord Riario is conflicted for only a moment. But all those tender erotic touches he had wished to become reality, together with their mutual confessions, are flooding his brain with that which he had tried so hard to guard himself against. Instinctively he pulls Leonardo close and on top of him, his defences yet again blown to pieces by the ingenious war engineer, only this time they are his own inner ones not the Pope's war machines. His tongue probes desperately between those lips that have tempted him so, tasting the sharp sweetness of peppermint on Leonardo's breath.

 _Holy Fuck!_ Da Vinci really hadn’t dared to hope that the count would react like that to his advances. He’s unbelievably relieved that they have put aside their difference for the moment and moans unashamedly into that kiss that is so different from what he’d dreamed it would be; possessive and demanding. He responds in kind, holding himself up on his elbows.

Girolamo pulls Leonardo's shirt over his head, groaning appreciatively at the display of bronzed skin over bulging muscles. He feels his cock fill rapidly, a desire like he's never felt before flooding his whole being.

Leo pulls impatiently at both their trousers, gives up and just slides his hand inside Girolamo’s, reaching for his almost fully erect cock, fisting it firmly, “That’s gorgeous,” he breathes, laying on his side, his eyes roaming over all of Riario hungrily, both from the artist’s point of view and the lover’s. 

There is nothing now besides the two of them. Girolamo's body is focused entirely on the man who invokes such strong feelings in him it makes him forget all his oaths. Even the regular dull shoots of pain in his leg don't hold him back when he pushes Leonardo onto his back, pressing himself somehow on top of him. “I need you…” he mutters as his fingers roam over all that beautifully exposed skin.

Leonardo pulls Girolamo’s shirt over his head and pushes his own trousers out of the way, "Need you more," he gasps, trying to get rid of those other garments too without hurting Riario’s injured leg. His mouth is everywhere he can reach.

When Riario reaches between Leonardo's legs as soon as they've shed their trousers he smirks. The other had not lied when he'd bragged about his activities the previous night as he finds his backside still soft and open and begging to be filled.

He spits in his hand, deciding that with Leonardo so well prepared already he won't need much help from him. Unceremoniously he drives two fingers into that heat, gazing at the artist’s flushed face through his fringe.

"Fuck! Yes! Your cock!” Leonardo can’t speak properly anymore, “In me, NOW!” he orders, staring through that dark hair of his sudden bed partner. He pulls his legs up all the way so the other can adjust quicker. His own cock bobbing hard against his stomach.

Girolamo’s grin widens. He seeks Leonardo's mouth again, driving his tongue between those lips simultaneously with his cock entering him from below. They moan together, incoherently, desperately, finally giving in to what had been building between them like a ticking time bomb. “Artista…”

The word said so gently lets Da Vinci melt. He’s always liked when Riario called him that but now he finds it truly arousing. And the feeling of being filled by Girolamo’s eager tongue and his even more eager cock lets all of Leo’s nerve endings sing at once. He can’t really believe yet that the Captain General of the Holy Church is fucking him so thoroughly, desires him just as much as he does him. The angle is just right. With his next inwards stroke Riario hits his pleasure spot and makes him howl.

So different from Nico. So different from Zita. For the first time in his life Riario feels that he has met his match between the bedsheets, that he is sleeping with an equal. Leonardo is just as dominant as he is and yet here he is submitting everything to him. Seeing the man admires beyond all else open up to him in so many ways, allowing him to glimpse into his very soul is mesmerising and adds a depth to their almost brutal mating that he has not experienced before.

He curses his still painful leg for not being able to see to his lover with as much vigour as he would like, but the noises spilling from Da Vinci's throat are surely encouraging.

“Is your leg alright?” Leo breathes against Girolamo’s lips as he pulls him close. He’d completely forgotten about it until his beloved count hissed a little in pain, trying to hide it. He stills his wild upwards thrusts for a moment, only clenching his arse muscles stimulatingly.

“Fine,” the Italian Lord lies, not wanting to stop their delightful exchange for one moment. He mewls softly as Leonardo works him from inside, impressed by his skill when he should be appalled.

He adjusts their position slightly though to take the pressure of his bad leg a little, which also moves him even deeper inside Leonardo.

“You are voracious, Da Vinci.”

“Certo,” Leo gasps, licking his new lover behind his ear, “Because I want to consume you whole.” He chuckles hungrily, his nails leaving trails on Riario’s back as his hands make their way down and onto those very firm buttocks, pressing the other even more into him.

“Bellissimo,” Girolamo moans under his breath, tilting his pelvis even more. He grabs Leo's leg, giving him leverage, pumping into that willing body with everything he's got, answering both of their desperate desires. Leonardo is everything and more of what he's had dreamt of. Eager, creative, passionate and stunningly gorgeous. Even more so in his state of high arousal, his eyes almost black with lust, his beautiful cock chafing between them.

“Girolamo,” Da Vinci pants into his desired one’s ear, “Rio,” he tries, “Come for me, fill me up with that delicious seed of yours.” His voice is hoarse with arousal and he enjoys talking dirty to the man of the Church, knowing how conflicting that must be to hear. He feels the other’s cock lurch at his words though. The thrusts of Rio’s hips losing their steady rhythm, getting erratic.

“Damn, just like that! Fuck me hard,” he encourages, feeling for his own dick between them, knowing he only needs a few firm strokes to come himself.

Riario grunts and groans against Leo's neck as he buries his face into that wild hair. He doesn't manage anything more civil than that as the linguistic part of his brain blacks out completely, leaving just primal moans and growls as he climaxes hard, shooting his semen deep inside his beautiful obsession.

The hot liquid inside of him triggers Leonardo’s own orgasm and he convulses between them, shouting out his pleasure, tangling his free hand into Riario’s sweaty hair. The dishevelled state of the normal impeccable count turns him on beyond reason.

He circles his hips as good as possible, encouraging every last drop out of the other’s fine dick. “You’re gorgeous,” he breathes, pulsing again and again. He didn’t know he had that much semen left to spend.

Riario feels like he might burst so fast his heart is beating. He roughly turns Leo's head to kiss him haphazardly, lips crashing against each other, the bristles of Da Vinci's ungroomed moustache brushing against his own. Surprisingly their unkempt, almost wild state had made him lust for Da Vinci all the more. As if shaking off the external pretence of civilisation had freed the both of them and allowed them to finally give in to each other. “È stato fantastico…” he praises.  

Leonardo can only nod and capture Girolamo’s mouth with a vicious kiss of his own. Their bodies still sliding together, only very slowly cooling down. His brain seems completely short circuited.

“Are you satisfied now?” Riario snorts after a while, still breathing in Leo's masculine arousal.

Leonardo moans,  trying to get to his senses, “Si, il mio Capitano.” He grins, his hangover truly gone with the exercise. “Are you?” he looks at that expressive face from very close up, tracing his fingertip over the count’s sweaty temple. “Girolamo,” he tries tentatively, smiling genuinely now.

“Mmm,” the count murmurs, slowly slipping out of that comfortable place. “For now,” he smiles back. He rubs the sole of his foot over the back of Leonardo's, feeling perfectly relaxed for the first time in memory.

Leonardo gently rolls his lover onto his back, to study his features and to slide his fingertips across that wide expanse of muscled chest. “I am eternally grateful for you saving my life,” he says out of the blue. But seeing how well build Riario really is, without any piece of clothing in the way, makes him think what a skillful fighter he must be to have taken on the Inca warriors.

Riario snorts but smiles. “It was in my own interest. But,” he strokes Leonardo's beard, “I am grateful that we saved each other. Even if we did not get what we came for.” He admires Da Vinci for a few moments. Lying here together just feels perfect and a part of him wishes never to return to Italy, not wanting to break the spell.

Leonardo smiles, “Maybe we got something better, on a completely different level.” He traces patterns onto the other’s flat stomach with his own semen, winking.

“Yes,” Girolamo nods. He stares into Leonardo's mesmerising eyes.

“And where do we go from here, artista?” he croaks as reality slowly starts to seep back into their comfortable bubble.

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” Leo moves forward to steal another kiss, “All I had been focusing on was to get you here. I didn’t think about what would happen if you’d actually be willing to sleep with me,” he whispers, “And blow my mind away.”

“In a few weeks we will be back on Italian soil,” Girolamo sighs, resting his arm behind his head whilst Leonardo still strokes those marvellous fingers across his chest. “And this,” he motions between them, “cannot exist.”

_Unless you come with me to Florence. But that wouldn’t be you._

“I know,” Leonardo huffs, “Let’s indulge in this for as long as we can,” he captures the mouth of his desire to plunge his tongue leisurely into it again, throwing his leg over Girolamo possessively.

“Nico…” Girolamo struggles between his still burning desire and his sensibility, “... must return with you.” He grabs Leonardo's face between his hands, looking at him intently. “Promise me that you will nurture his mind.”

Leonardo blinks rapidly, _How can he think about Nico right now? We just fucked like there is no tomorrow!_ He is trapped by those strong hands and grabs Girolamo’s arms, “He really means something to you?” he asks, not hiding his utter surprise and spark of jealousy.

“Yes,” Girolamo says without hesitation. “Perhaps not in the same way that I feel about you. But I care deeply for him.”

“He’s a very sweet young man,” Leonardo sighs, thinking about that statement in the aftermath of _their_ … _What was it? Intercourse? Love making?_

“He reminds me of the boy I once was. And I do not want him to become like the man I am now. You can give him a future. To reach his potential,” Girolamo stresses.

Leonardo wriggles his nose, his habit when he’s thinking hard. “I thought I did that,” he turns on his back and stares at the very close ceiling, rubbing his semen stained hands over his face, wondering where he had gone wrong. “He reminds you of yourself?” he looks at the count sideways. “Damn I never thought he’d fuck with a man… if I had known…” He shakes his head irritably. “I must have been so distracted if he ever gave me any cues.” _I don’t want him to become like me._ Leonardo tries to sort all the information within the blink of an eye.

Riario laughs at that. “It's not about sex, Leonardo. We all have to eat, even those of us who can fast for many days eventually will succumb to hunger. It's about being seen. Being appreciated. You are so used to leading from the front that you forget that without the army at your back you would stand alone on the battlefield. And even the best soldier, Leonardo, cannot fight a war on his own.”

Leonardo sits up. “I guess I have completely underestimated his talents and his value. I can be glad he still is at my side… _If_ he still wants to be now.” He turns his head around, looking at the gorgeous man beside him. “Why did I not see that myself?” He feels that even though he has slept with Count Riario now, who feels like his soul mate, there is a very soft spot for Nico in his heart and he doesn’t know what he would have done if he would not have found him alive.

 _Because people like you never do,_ Riario thinks, but he keeps that thought to himself, not wanting to ruin this new-found friendship and… love? between them. “He will follow you to the ends of the earth,” he reassures Da Vinci of his apprentice’s devotion.

"I think I’ve pissed him off. Maybe he’ll rather follow you. The man who’s taken him seriously."

“Well then you must convince him otherwise, mustn't you,” Riario says plainly, pushing himself up now and reaching for his trousers. “In any case I think we both have some explaining to do.”

Leonardo gingerly gets off the bed, wondering if his hangover will reoccur. He walks to the bucket with water and washes his hands and face, not wanting to stink too much like a whore. “Indeed we have.” _Zo will have my balls for this!_

_+++_

“Nico?" Zoroaster inquires when his young friend comes back, the tankard with steaming herbal brew still in his hand, his face a stony mask.

“Tea?” Nico asks as he already pours the hot brew into the cups. Clearly Da Vinci is too busy to drink it so he might as well pour it for them.

“I don’t have a hangover, but thank you,” Zo takes the cup and sips slowly. _Not as bad as I thought._ “Leo doesn’t want it?”

“Leo is with the count,” Nico says icily as he drinks the herbal brew. He hadn't drunk any wine last night but his head is pounding nonetheless.

"And they don’t..." Zo’s eyes bulge as he realises what Nico is not saying by his uncharacteristic behaviour. "I’m so going to kill them both!" he exclaims and wants to storm out.

Nico looks up at his friend and shakes his head. “We both knew it was going to happen,” he says stoically. “They've been through so much together in the Vault of Heaven. And I think there was always something between them, they were both just too stubborn to admit it.” He sighs, trying to stay rational and not act like a lovesick girl even though his heart feels like it has shattered into a thousand pieces.  

“I don’t know,” Zo frowns at that, not really convinced, "Yesterday you told me what a fine man _Count Riario_ is and today you just give over?" he can’t believe he’s more upset than Nico.

“Or do what?” Nico bites. “Storm in there and tell the maestro that Count Riario is mine? How ridiculous would that be! It's bad enough without me making a complete fool of myself! If they want each other then…” He stops talking as he feels that another word might just breach the dam that's barely holding back his tears.

"Yes, yes, you’re right," Zo back paddles, seeing the young man has a point there.

Nico busies himself with nothing important as his thoughts churn in his head. He isn't even sure who he is more angry with, Count Riario or the maestro. Or even whether he has a right to be angry at all. Neither had said they loved him after all, nor had he declared his own feelings. And yet he cannot help feeling betrayed by them both. Leonardo for pretty much pushing him aside without so much as a word, _knowing_ that he had slept with the count first. What was that about? Simple revenge? Staking his claim as his elder and his maestro, like a stray dog marking its territory? And what about the count? Why had he slept with him if he really wanted Leonardo? Had that meant really nothing more to the man of the church than getting his leg over when there was no-one else around?

He cringes at the venom in his thoughts, wondering about his own feelings. He wonders why he had gone to the count’s cabin last night after his row with his maestro, knowing that it would upset him even further. Had he just done the same as Da Vinci was doing now, trying to claim the count as his own? An even more sickening thought creeps in after that. _Is the count just playing us off against one another? Are we both foolish to trust him? Was Zo right after all?_

He pulls his hand roughly across his face, not wanting to give in to those demons. He does not feel like he has the right to think those things about the two men who after all had cared for him, each in their own way. Not without at least giving them a chance to explain.

“Why does it hurt, Zo?” he whispers, no longer able to fight back those tears after all. “I… I want don't want to be upset but I can't help it.” He looks pleadingly at his friend through a veil of tears now.

 "Damn, what a mess..." Zo empties his cup in one go and again strokes Nico’s shoulder. “Love unfortunately hurts sometimes,” he says, wondering what makes him think Nico loves one or the other. He just senses that the young man is truly upset and pulls Nico into a bear hug.

Nico blinks for a moment. _Love… Am I really that lost?_ He clamps onto Zo's shirt and starts to sob softly. He hates showing himself up like that in front of his closest friend and someone he once had thought he had been in love with too, but he cannot hold back his emotions anymore. “Do you… do you think that _they_ love each other? The maestro and the count?” he asks stupidly in the vain hope that Zo is going to tell him that he's imagining things and that he's overreacting.

Zoroaster has a hard time not to laugh at the preposterous idea of Da Vinci and Count Riario as sweethearts. But then again, the way that Leonardo had exploded over Nico and his drunken confessions after their rough sex… “I don’t know Nico,” he says into those blonde curls of the man he loves like his little brother. “I have to admit all of that is an unsolvable riddle to me.” He peels Nico away from him and holds him at arm's length, looking into his tear stained eyes, “You and Riario being almost inseparable when Leo and I arrive, Leo inventing an _underwater ship_ to come to your rescue, then him and the count bonding up in the Vault…” he shakes his head, “I have not the slightest clue what is going on here. Maybe you should ask them yourself.” 

Nico wipes the tears from his face, pulling himself to order. “Yes, I guess you're right.” He likes the bit about the maestro inventing something completely crazy like that to rescue him. Surely that shows that he cares. “Perhaps… perhaps I just misinterpreted…” _Although I hardly think those noises were Riario teaching Leonardo the Lord’s Prayer!_ “I will talk to them. Thanks Zo,” he attempts a smile.

Zo gives him another brief squeeze and then tries to change the subject, "You want to still make a crutch?"  

Nico actually laughs at Zo's awkward attempt to cheer him up. He's tempted to say _no screw them_ , but that is just not in his nature and so he nods. “Yeah, okay. At least it will take my mind of things.”

Zo admires the boy for his grown-up manners. He feels a little itchy himself, for Leo just screwing with him and immediately fucking with the count after. But it had only ever been sex with them. His concern is he didn't really satisfy his friend and that's scratching is pride.


	5. Chapter 5

Leonardo drags his fingers through his hair a few more times, feeling very self conscious, before he pushes open the door to the main cabin. "Er Nico, can we talk," he says sheepishly, avoiding Zo's eyes.

Nico almost lets the tankard slip from his fingers. That was the last thing he'd expected. "O…   Of course Maestro," he stammers, looking at Zo.

But Zo is red with rage in his face and within two steps he stands in front of Leonardo, punching him in the nose, “You arrogant bastard!” he yells.

“What the hell did you do that for?” Leo splutters as his hand shoots to his nose, catching the blood.

“Maybe if you think about the people around you for a moment and not only focus on yourself and your crazy plans, you might come to a surprising conclusion, _maestro_!” Zo rubs his fist.

“I … I did,” Leonardo groans, wiping his face with a rag from his pocket. “I have. That's why I came to talk to Nico,” he adds softly, feeling a little ashamed.

“A little late, don’t you think?” Zo bites back.

Nico is completely speechless, handing Leo another rag.

Nico's caring gesture despite Leo's betrayal cannot make the artist feel any worse.

He turns to Zoroaster though, saying sharply, “Thank you, Zo, but I'm sure Nico can say that for himself. I think we both need to stop talking for him and start treating him like an adult.” When Zoroaster does not move, he adds, “So, can you give us a moment.” He motions for his friend to be gone.

Zo huffs and only shakes his head, stomping out.

Leonardo turns back to Nico. “I'm sorry,” he mutters softly. “For a lot of things.”

The young man is grateful for his maestro saying this. “I’m sorry too,” he looks up straight into Da Vinci’s eyes.

That confuses Leonardo. He tentatively puts his hand on Nico's shoulder, not sure if the younger man won't shrug him off and give him a punch of his own -he surely deserves it. “Why are _you_ sorry?” he frowns.

“Because…” Nico takes a deep breath, “Because I slept with Girolamo… You two are… Last night… I shouldn’t have …” he stammers, feeling like the boy again Da Vinci, Zo and even Vanessa treated him like.

Leonardo smiles a little at that. “Well that makes two of us.” He steers Nico towards a chair and sits down next to him. “I know you care a lot for him.”

“Yes I do,” Nico looks unsurely at his maestro because they never had a conversation like that before, “But so do you.” He doesn’t know where to put his hands, wanting to wipe away the blood on Da Vinci’s face. “And I care for you, too,” he admits softly, “A lot.” Now that his maestro stands before him, talking to him with kind and apologetic words, he finds it impossible to conjure up the anger he'd felt towards him earlier.

Leonardo grabs the back of Nico's neck and squeezes him softly. “I care a lot for you too,” he smiles. “We got ourselves in a right mess here,” he sighs.

Nico exhales and nods. He’s never had such caring attention from his idol, "And it seems it needed another to make us truly talk with each other," he says bravely.

“Indeed,” Da Vinci nods. “Who'd have thought a couple of months ago that Count Riario would have such an influence.” He looks at Nico as if he's seeing him for the first time. “I eh… I'm sorry if you… if you feel that I've taken you for granted,” he stutters. “And that I haven't given you enough attention. I didn't… I mean… Did you….?” he says awkwardly, not entirely sure of what he is trying to say.

Nico smiles a little, "The count is someone very special..." _or someone very very insidious._ He looks down to find the right words not daring to say that out loud yet, concentrating on the good their _relationship_ has done for him so far. "He made me see myself," he crosses his fingers in his lap nervously. "I, yes, if you mean if I was interested in you," a sideways glance, "But I gave up on the hope you’d feel the same a long time ago."

Da Vinci is speechless for a moment. He really hadn't seen it at all, had never even given it a thought. Now he wonders how he could have been so blind. Or why he had never been interested in Nico in turn. He's a very attractive young man with his angelic blond curls and soft features. “I see…” he says a little regretfully.

"Why do you suddenly ask me that?" Nico wonders, puzzled. He thought the two older men would stay in Girolamo’s cabin all day long and yet here his maestro sits beside him, apologising for seemingly his whole life.

“Riario told me how much you admire me,” Leonardo says, feeling humbled for once. “And he told me off for neglecting you,” he chuckles a little. “He… he also said that you remind him of himself, when he was a boy… and that he didn't want you to turn out the way he has.”

Nico blinks in surprise. “He’s said all of that to you? About me… me and you?” he really can’t believe that they must have talked about him when he thought they’d be busy doing something else. _He hasn’t forgotten about me. And it seems the count's intentions were honourable after all_ , he almost sighs a breath of relief.

“Yes,” Leonardo smiles. He feels a little more hopeful now that Nico may forgive him and that he hasn't fucked up their relationship for good. “He wants you to go back to Florence with me,” he tries carefully. “If you still want to…”

“But aren’t you going to Rome with him?” Nico says breathlessly, not believing his ears.

Leonardo shakes his head. “I will spend time in Rome. But I'm not sure yet where I'm going next to be honest. Once I've fixed the head with my mother's voice …” He looks up at Nico again. “I'd like you to come with me, wherever it tells me to go next. If … if you still want to after I've apparently been such an arse…”

“I want to, maestro,” Nico says without hesitation, knowing he can’t go with Girolamo and now seeing hope that Leonardo Da Vinci might change his attitude towards him, at least just occasionally. He knows that the other won’t change … but then, count Riario did. At their first meeting he had tried out the widow’s tears device on him and now, after having screwed him into oblivion, he’s concerned about his well being and his future. It appears that even someone as ruthless as the Captain General can change for the better. 

+++

Zoroaster still fumes, letting the wind clear his head, looking over the wide expanse of the ocean. He doesn’t like the feeling of their little family being ripped apart. He is devoted to Nico and Leo, loved to work with them even though he doesn't get truly paid. But they lived. Now he might have to look into something else on his own and he clearly doesn’t favour that idea one bit. That would just be so very boring. Being with Leo was always an adventure and full of funny risk and surprisingly good outcomes.

He shakes his head. _Fucking count fucking Riario!_ Of all people he can scarcely believe that it is that man who has stolen the hearts of his two best friends.

“Just you left now,” Riario jests as he steps up behind Zoroaster. “Then I'll have the full set.”

Zo spins around instantly at that voice and just as with Leo he punches the count in the face. Harder. “HOW DARE YOU!!” he aims for the next punch with his other hand, regretting that he hasn’t got his sword handy.

The count barely flinches and he lets the second blow land, grinning at his attacker, stumbling only a little as his balance is off. He does not even bother to wipe his face as he sneers, “Relax, it was a joke. You do not interest me,” he says in a tone that seems to dismiss the other man's very existence.

“I want to kill you, just as you tried to kill me,” Zo spits, “You can be glad that Nico and Leo are so fond of you for whatever reason.” He turns around and stares over the ocean again, ignoring the man who’s burst his bubble of some kind of family. The very presence of the snake of the Vatican makes his skin crawl. Not only can he not for the life of him see what the other two see in this man, but he just cannot trust him. He is sure that the count is only out for himself and he cannot shake his suspicion that he is using all of them in some way to get what he wants. Zo has dealt with enough people like Riario to know that someone like that doesn't just change from the devil into a saint.

“You are a remarkable friend,” Riario says softly as he takes to stand next to the other uninvitedly. “I can't decide whether it's foolish or admirable.”

Zoroaster graces the count with a sideways glance at the unexpected praise that pulls him out of his thoughts and he decides to ignore the ‘foolish’ part of the sentence. He stays silent though, not wanting to engage in a conversation with the man who’s upsetting him beyond anything.

“I care a great deal for them,” Riario continues the one sided conversation even though Zoroaster had not asked him for an explanation. “And I'm very aware you do too. So whilst in another universe you and I would settle this quarrel once and for all, for the sake of Nico and Da Vinci…” he turns to Zo and holds out his hand, “I would like us to remain civil with each other.”

Zoroaster blinks in true shock and turns his head around very slowly, getting his bearings. That’s such a very surprising gesture of the count it renders his normally agile tongue completely speechless. He looks Riario up and down, his bloody nose and split lip, his outstretched hand and bandaged leg. The non-threatening expression.

A cacophony of alarm bells are going off all at once in his head though. _He's a charmer. This is what he does, gaining your trust, so it's easier to stab you in the back when you let down your guard. This is how he's got to Nico and Leo! Don't let him fool you too._

And yet the look in the count’s eyes does seem genuine. And he hadn't asked to be friends, just a truce, a cease fire. He clears his throat and looks his enemy in the eye, “Alright, I accept, for their sake,” he clasps Riario’s hand firmly. "But if you hurt one or the other in any way, I’m going to hurt you. I will hunt you down and I'll make you wish you'd never crossed paths with me. You can be certain of that."

Riario smirks at Zoroaster, holding his hand firmly as they each squeeze a little harder than strictly polite. “And I will keep you to that promise,” he winks.

+++

Leonardo stares at what surely must be a mirage. The count and Zoroaster shaking hands? Surely not! One or two possible outcomes flit through his head -they've either agreed all too politely to duel to the death or they've temporarily set aside their differences in order to turn their vengeance to him.

As he steps closer he notes though that Count Riario sports a similar injury to his own. “Everything alright?” he asks tentatively, bracing himself this time for another fist -or two- flying his way.

Zoroaster huffs a, "Yes," under his breath, still pissed with Leonardo, even though the count had just surprised the hell out of him.

“Yes,” Riario agrees, smirking at Leo’s swollen face, guessing his brutish friend who seems to only talk with his fists had had a frank _conversation_ with the artist also.

He takes a step towards Leonardo and briefly caresses his face, giving him a half smile. “And Nico?”

“Yes,” Leonardo nods and smiles at the gentle gesture that still catches him off guard. “Everything is fine.”

 Riario is relieved by that. He knows they'd overstepped the mark and he knows he has an apology of his own to make. Without a further word he steps past Leonardo to find Nico.  

Zoroaster can’t believe what he’s just witnessed. Count Riario stroking his fingers affectionately across Leonardo Da Vinci’s cheek.

“Did he just…?” he turns to look after the captain, staring. “First Nico and now you, what’s with this guy? Can you maybe explain that to a normal thinking man like me? Because I just don’t get it.” Zo looks a little helplessly at Leonardo.

Leonardo shrugs a little helplessly too though. “I don't know,” he says honestly, understanding all too well what Zo is getting at. “He still infuriates me,  but…” He scrunches up his nose and chuckles, “damn, he's cute though.” He follows the count with his eyes too, getting hot already as he thinks about their passionate encounter. “He's… an enigma.”

“ _Cute?!”_ Zo gapes at his friend, “Did you actually call Count Riario cute now?” he presses his hand towards Leo’s forehead theatrically, “You really can’t be helped.” He shakes his head, “Well, each to their own,” he slaps Leo’s shoulder in a friendly gesture. “I think I might forgive you,” he grumbles. “Maybe I can have your lady friend then,” he winks.

“Lucrezia?!” Leonardo gapes at Zoroaster. “But you two hate each other!” He chuckles though when his friend raises a mocking eyebrow. “Alright, yes, I get it, I hated Riario too. I guess… maybe opposites attract? Or perhaps we are more alike each other than we'd like to admit…” he scratches his beard. “I can't speak for Lucrezia though. And I warn you that she's quite a handful.” He slaps Zo across the top of his shoulders. “Nothing that you couldn't handle I'm sure.”

When Zo had turned up in Florence without Nico and with Lucrezia events had been too fast paced to ask too many questions and Da Vinci had more or less forgotten about it in the excitement of their travels and new inventions and discoveries. “Did something happen between you two?” he asks curiously now though.

 _Except that I told her that all my best friends are traitorous whores,_ “Nothing, except she kissed me, when we both were chained together and about to die,” Zo grins broadly, waiting for Leo’s reaction, suddenly aware that they’d never talked about how Riario had tried to kill them.

“Whoahwhatnow?!” Leonardo coughs. He had been so caught up in his own adventures and romances that not only Nico’s but clearly Zo's life too had passed him by somehow. “Care to tell me how on earth that happened, my friend? You were _chained_ together and… damn you are going to have to put some context to that!”

 _Is Leo jealous?_ “Well, while your nice count felt the need to dispose both me and his dear cousin into the ocean, she had the brilliant idea to somehow smuggle one of her hair pins into her mouth and then into mine.” Zo grins, remembering the odd kiss as if it was yesterday, “Trusting in my ability to pick locks. Under water.”

“I … see ...,” Leonardo mutters, scratching his nose, although he still tries to puzzle that odd story together in his head. “Rio tried to drown you??”

 “R… Rio?” Zoroaster takes a real deep breath at the nickname. The memory of his near death and Leonardo talking so affectionately about his almost murderer totally knots up his brain. “YES! For fucks sake!” Zo can’t and doesn’t want to hide his anger. “For some reason he decided for Nico to live, even though the boy fought hard to help me! So yes,” he pokes Leo in the chest hard, “your _Rio_ chained Lucrezia and myself together to drown us in the middle of the sea, while _you!_ were fucking busy doing whatever it was you were doing!” It feels good to let all that built up anger out, even though he knows it’s how Leonardo is and he didn’t feel angry with him at the time, just sad that he couldn’t tell him to take care of their young friend then.

“I …!” Leo opens his mouth to justify his actions in Florence for what feels the hundredth time in the space of a few days but he shuts it again. Enough excuses. “You're right,” he sighs. “I should have been there. And thank you for not dying,” he half jokes. “I…  I can't excuse what Riario did or tried to do. Of course I don't. All I can say is that I think something has changed. Perhaps it was Nico. Perhaps the trials of the vault. But I really believe _he_ has changed.” He looks sheepishly at his friend. “And thank you for not killing me for saying that.” _Yet._ He bites his lip. “Shit, I'm really head over heels… Help me.”

“Come here you love sick boy,” Zo grabs for Leo and hugs him close, “I forgive you. Just make sure he doesn’t kill _you!”_

Leonardo feels utterly grateful and relieved. “He wouldn't dare,” he chuckles. “He knows you and Nico would tear him limb from limb.” _Because you would, my friends. Damn I have wronged you both._

+++

Nico contemplates everything that has just happened, has been said, sitting alone in the cabin, listening to the waves that play around the ship and the sailors calling commands to each other.

Everything has changed but then again nothing at all since he’s going back to Florence with his maestro and Zo. He’s even been asked to travel again.

He slides his hands through his curls and sighs, still grateful anyway that they’re all stuck on this ship for a while longer with Count Riario accompanying them.

“Nico…” Riario steps into the little cabin and cocks his head slightly at the blonde boy, trying to assess the other's mood after what had happened between him and Da Vinci. “May I join you?”

His part time pupil looks up, a half smile on his face, “Count Riario,” he says softly. He isn’t sure if he still has the privilege to call the other by his first name. “Thank you for talking to the maestro on my behalf.”

“Ah…” Girolamo says a little awkwardly. He had expected anger, disappointment, perhaps even tears. Not a thank you! He stays standing, trying to find a way of starting this conversation. He isn't exactly well versed in extending apologies to others, especially when he feels it's God he should be apologising to for his behaviour. “And so you'll go back to Florence with Da Vinci?” he stalls.

“As my wise, former master told me to,” Nico says sarcastically. Even though he thinks Da Vinci and the count are destined for each other, that doesn’t mean he has to be happy about it. He still feels betrayed, busying himself with tidying their tiny workbench, turning his back to the man who stole his heart. “I feel deceived, Girolamo,” he whispers. “I guess you were right all along, about how love makes us weak and vulnerable.”

Riario swallows at the flood of emotions he feels come off the young man. _Love?_ Their physical relationship had been desire, desperation, lust, comfort, celebration and even friendship. But love?

He walks up to the hurt young man, laying his hand on his shoulder. “Nico I regret that you feel betrayed and for that I am sorry. But please know that what I feel for Da Vinci does not replace what I feel for you. You are an exceptional young man.” He forces Nico to turn around and look at him. “You have become a companion, a confidant and a friend to me. There are none whom I trust as much, none I have shared the secrets with that I've shared with you.”

Nico meets Riario’s gaze in wonder at these words. _A friend and a confidant. He trusts me._ “Thank you,” he whispers again. “I… I’m confused, that’s all,” he swallows, his heart pounding in his chest as he gets brave enough to say, “You are my friend too… Girolamo.” He wants to caress those features so close to him but he keeps his hands to himself.

“Confused?” Girolamo asks softly, trying to read what lies behind those incredibly blue eyes.

“I... I thought you’d only sleep with the person you love,” he says under his breath, barely audible, “But apparently not.”

Riario is quiet for some time, digesting that statement. “My love is for God, Nico,” he says eventually. “For when we love God, His Word will resonate within us.” He smiles warmly at Nico, trying to convey to his pupil how much he struggles with the conflict between his convictions and his feelings.

“I know, that is something you taught me,” Nico gives in and slides his hands onto Riario’s chest, feeling his strength and his warmth. “So you don’t love my maestro either?”

Riario wets his lips slowly. “I must not,” he says softly. “I… have devoted my life in service of God,” He casts his eyes down; in truth he does not know what to call his feelings for the arrogant genius. Their lives seem to somehow be intertwined, their fates connected. “Da Vinci… invokes strong feelings in me…” is as much as he is able to admit out loud.

Nico sighs, almost feeling Riario’s struggle within. On their journey together he’s learnt how devoted the man is to God, “In you and me both,” he dares to say. “But I trust you. You make me feel valued. All the things you just said, well, I thought that is love. And at the same time I think…” he stops mid-sentence. _I’m in love with Da Vinci too._ He doesn’t say that out loud since it just seems too warped. Instead he straightens up, making a decision, “I will not be in your way. And I will be your friend if you want me to be.”  

“You are not in my way,” Riario frowns, intrigued by Nico's comment. He had believed his entire life that whilst men might indulge in sin it was not possible for two men to love each other. In fact he doubted whether even a man and a woman could. Love had always seemed poetic nonsense, something for artists to indulge their fickle patrons with. Marriage was nothing more than a political game and sex only for pleasure or procreation. The only love he ever had understood was his faith, for God is perfection and how can anyone possibly love anything less, let alone a person, riddled with sin like a sickness.

And yet when he is close to these two men, each so different from the other and yet both capturing his interest in their own unique way, he feels something that he had only felt once before. The image of Zita breathing her last breath in his arms as he weeps over her briefly flashes behind his eyes. Is that love? To be willing to sacrifice all for another? And if so, would he do the same for Nico or Da Vinci?

_Yes._

The simplicity of the answer that throbs in his heart takes him by surprise and he looks up at Nico again. “I would like for things to not change. Between us. Until our paths part.”

Nico swallows. _What’s that supposed to mean?_ He feels the heat from Riario’s palms seeps straight into his body. He can’t decide if he wants to shrug those hands off now or just torture himself a little while longer in a completely different way than before. What he just heard gives him a little hope. But then, it could mean anything. “Alright,” he says tentatively, not knowing what he agrees to right now. His heart beating faster though.

The count smiles a dark smile at Nico's response and bends himself forward, pressing his lips briefly on the younger man's. “I'm glad,” he whispers into that shallow kiss.

Nico’s eyes bulge at that. He’s speechless and breathless and confused all at once, but pressing his lips right back.

But Riario pulls back, leaving the desire hanging in the air between them. He is already playing a dangerous game here and it's far too good to give away his hand too soon. “In good time,” he promises. And with that he turns around as the pain in his leg tells him that he should on occasion listen to Da Vinci and rest.


	6. Chapter 6

Nico lies awake, staring into nothingness. He mulls Riario’s words over and over. He wants nothing to change between them. Nothing? Well, the kiss said it all, didn’t it? The kiss and that look in Girolamo’s eyes. Was that an invitation? But then, he’d had just slept with his maestro earlier… Does he want them both? The man of the church desires two men? No, that cannot be.

Da Vinci hasn’t been in their cabin all evening, so he must be with the count. But then, he never sleeps much. He usually works until he’s passing out. Nico smiles fondly, thinking of his maestro. Feeling proud that he knows him so well.

He sighs. _What am I going to do?_

He buries his head in his hands trying to get his own body back under control using the meditation techniques that Girolamo had taught him. His mind, however, will not be silenced. He just cannot reconcile the pious man who had taught him about God with the man who sleeps with both him and his maestro. It's like there are two different people behind that serene mask.

_Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak._

Is it simply that? The count being but a mortal man falling to the same bodily temptations as he and Leo have? Or is there something more cunning, more dangerous lurking inside?

Nico rubs his face vigorously, getting annoyed with his own mistrustful thoughts. But then he smirks. It was Count Riario himself after all who had taught him to be wary and on his guard all the time. To always try and see behind the obvious and challenge people's motives. Not to trust anyone, especially not those who are closest.

He wishes he could talk to his devout teacher right now for guidance. But of course as the subject of his doubts that is out of the question. Normally he would turn to Zo in the first instance with his questions. But he does not have to ask Zoroaster whether Riario can be trusted to know the answer he will get from his friend. And Leonardo… His maestro is as much under the count's spell as he is, if not more. He cannot ask the man who is most likely lying in Riario's bed right now for an objective opinion.

He quietly crawls out if his bunk and kneels on the floor, turning his plea for advice to the only One he feels he can trust and who surely knows Girolamo better than anyone.

 _Lord, you promised that when I seek You with all my heart, I will find You._  
I seek only after You.  
Still my troubled heart.  
Calm my wayward mind.  
I seek only after You.

And as his racing thoughts finally slow and still into a serene peace he finds that for the first time he may truly understand what God means to the man he loves.

+++

Leonardo hums an obscure tune as he scribbles notes into his diary. Everything he looks at seems more fascinating, more fabulous, more interesting today. Having spent the night with Riario just seems to make all of his senses sing and dance with happiness and even the dark cabins within the ship feel more homely.

“Nico!” he smiles way too brightly and happily when his young apprentice enters. “And how are you this very fine morning?”

Nico tries not to cringe at Da Vinci’s over bright smile, “I am alright,” he lies, “But the count is in pain,” Nico forces out calmly as he joins Leonardo in their little make shift laboratory. “I hope we’ve enough of these new herbs left for the whole journey.” He stays on the subject of his visit after having fulfilled his duties, tending to Riario’s broken leg. First they’d prayed together just like they did when they first really got to know each other. And it had made Nico all peaceful and hopeful. Girolamo had been his charming self, giving him kind looks and stroking his hair. Another fleeting kiss, but nothing more though. And Nico’s heart hurts, just knowing he’d been with Leonardo during the night. He had not dared to challenge the count about that though and seeing Leonardo's happiness makes the whole thing just so much harder.

“Ah yes,” Leonardo grins even wider, not even feeling guilty. “He should rest it really, but the count doesn't like to take it slow,” he smirks to himself as his arousal rises to surface again thinking about their intense exercise.

 _With you. He took it slow with me.  Do I tell Leonardo what he offered me? That he kissed me, again? That Riario might be playing us both? That his intentions aren’t as pure with you as they seem?_ But probably Da Vinci has figured that one out himself already, being so close to the man he wants to be close to himself. _Perhaps he doesn't care as long as he's getting his share?_ Nico wonders how he’d feel about that if that were the case.

Nico keeps his mouth shut, still not sure if his jealousy is getting the better of him. He does not want to denounce the count without having proof. _Fuck! What a dilemma!_

Da Vinci is quite oblivious to Nico's inner debate as he starts to rummage around for the ingredients. “What do you think will happen when we get back to Italy?” he asks his novice, as his own thoughts are churning in his brain.

Nico coughs at the unexpected question and takes a small bowl and a spoon since they lack a mortar. He thinks for a moment, avoiding his master’s gaze. “I… I guess everything gets back to normal?” He curses his voice because it’s so thick with suppressed tears.

Leonardo throws Nico a sideways glance. “Are you alright?” he asks as Nico does not seem his normal self this morning. It's hard for him to come down from his own euphoria to empathise with his apprentice though.

Nico just nods his head, busying himself with his tasks.

“Good,” Leonardo briefly strokes Nico's cheek but he's distracted. He gazes into the distance, not really seeing anything. “I think Girolamo will return to Rome…” he sighs.

Nico feels his head spin, confused at Da Vinci’s short display of affection, "I’m sorry maestro. I know."

“I'm in love with him,” Leonardo suddenly blurts out, admitting that as much to himself as to Nico.

The young man is glad he didn’t pick up the bowl again because by now it would have  shattered on the floor. He blinks rapidly. “Maestro,” Nico finally looks up at Leonardo, “I… I think… “ _Girolamo, please forgive me if I’m wrong! “_ What if he might be playing a double game…” he trails off, his own mind feels like split in half. “Perhaps we should be careful.”

“What?” Leonardo frowns as if he's only just noticed Nico is there with him. He could have understood a warning from Zoroaster in response to his admission, but Nico cares almost as much for Girolamo as he does.  He had hoped to get a more positive reaction from him. _Is he jealous?_ “What do you mean, he's playing a double game?”

“I… I don’t know. It’s just a feeling,” Nico whispers, pressing the herbs harder in the bowl than necessary. His mind utter chaos and his heart thrumming in his throat. He feels very loyal to Da Vinci still, too. _But I think I'm in love with Riario too… God, please help!_

Leo's frown furrows more as he drops his pen on the workbench and turns fully to Nico now. “What - do you - mean?” he asks again, although this time his tone carries the weight of a threat behind it. His hand is shaking a little as his temper is throbbing in his temples.

“He kissed me right before he slept with you. And again when I went to see him just now,” Nico presses out between clenched teeth. “He wants things not to change between him and me, he said.”

“Get out!” Leonardo hisses before Nico has good and well finished talking.

 _Why is becoming a man so fucking complicated?!_ Nico fumes, “Girolamo trusts me,” he says proudly all of a sudden, locking his angry gaze with Leonardo’s, “And me telling you this, goes completely against that! So I want you to appreciate it! _Maestro!”_ In that moment it occurs to Nico, that he may have grown out of the master-student relationship with Da Vinci, now that they are rivalling for a lover. 

Leo is tempted to grab Nico by his shirt, but he manages to restrain himself. He'd never raised a hand at his apprentice as he doesn't believe in that approach so he's not about to start now. But his feelings for Count Riario cloud his better judgement. “You're jealous!” he raises his voice. “Because Girolamo is sleeping with me now. _That_ I can understand. But don't sink so low as to malign him in front of me just to try and get back his affection! I d-d-did not expect that from you, Niccolò Machiavelli!”

“YES! I’m jealous,” Nico hisses, “But don’t you remember how he was before this journey? Maybe he cannot change as we wish he would?” He’s determined to stand his ground now and to also get some sense into his master’s love clouded brain.

Leonardo snorts angrily. “It appears you were much quicker than I to forget the scars he gave you once you had his cock up your arse!” he spits venomously. “He saved my life!”

“And MINE!” Nico yells. He points to the bowl and spoon as he has had enough of this. “ _YOUR_ patient needs his medicine,” he growls. “How about you ask him yourself what his intentions are?”

He has to get away. He has to sort his own thoughts and feelings. He doesn’t know what’s up and what is down anymore.

He leaves Da Vinci rooted to the spot. He’s never felt that angry before. At his master, at Riario, at himself. His heart feels like bursting. Maybe it would have been better to not get involved _at all!_   

+++

Riario looks up in surprise. He had expected Nico to be the one to come and tend to him as every time before. Certainly not Da Vinci, who is the one who stands in his doorway now. “Artista,” he grins. “You just cannot stay away can you.”

 _Nico refused._ Leo bites his tongue quickly before that slips out.

“Let me check your leg, since you say you are in pain,” Leonardo says more calmly than he feels, offering the medicine to his patient.

Riario frowns at Leonardo as he takes the cup from him. “You imply that I would exaggerate my ailment?” he growls. “And with what possible purpose?”

“I didn’t imply anything.” Leo just cannot look at the count after having realised what feelings he harbours for him and after the accusations Nico made. “My apprentice said you are in pain, so I need to check,” he kneels before Riario and lifts his leg up carefully to put is foot on his knee and remove the bandages.

Riario flinches as Leonardo moves his leg and bites back a curse. The tension in his carer and the way he had referred to Nico have not gone unnoticed though. He watches Da Vinci with interest as he examines him. Something has definitely changed. Something has shifted in the way the artist acts since their intimacy last night. “Do you have regrets?” he asks outright.

Leonardo’s head snaps up to look straight into those infuriatingly expressive eyes, “No. Do you?” he retorts instantly.

Riario purses his lips briefly as he thinks about that. “No.” He tilts his head, smiling softly at his medic. “I should. But I have none.”

"What about Nico?" Da Vinci asks hoarsely, knowing the answer to that question could mean all or nothing. He dreads it but he also needs to know. He can’t have Riario playing wicked games with them if he’s about to open up his heart to the Lord of Imola. His eyelid twitches and his palms feel sweaty as he looks up from his task, wetting his lips nervously as the seconds go by.

“What about Nico?” Girolamo retorts reservedly.

"You kissed him. Right after you and I..."

“Da Vinci,” Riario says with a hint of mockery, “we will burn in hell for the unnatural acts that you and I are committing. And now you are the one preaching monogamy to me?” He tilts his head, smirking at his lover. “Which of the many sins burnt into our eternal soul would you like to discuss also; sodomy, fornication?” He leans forward, brushing Leonardo's lips with his breath. “According to The Old Testament God does not condemn a man for taking more than one lover.” _More than one wife!_ he reminds himself, but he chooses to ignore that detail for now. “And I am, after all, the bastard son of a Jewish whore.” He leans himself back again, holding his suitor’s gaze. “Now tell me,  Leonardo, why it bothers you that I still care for Nico but allowed myself to care for you also? Are you truly that self-gratifying  that you get to fuck with whomever you wish but no-one else can?”

The engineer splutters at that, searching for words, “I.... I’m not… you allowed… You mean polygamy?” He strokes one nervous hand through his hair while he holds his patient’s foot steady with the other. _He admits that he still cares for Nico._ Leo frowns and swallows. _I do too though. Is that the same?_ _Why was I so upset earlier?_ Because Nico accused Riario for tricking them. For doing things secretive, behind his back. But the count just openly admitted to his affection for his pupil. And talks to him about having more than one lover… _Their_ pupil _?_

Leonardo shakes his head and sits back on his haunches. He doesn't want to think about the extra complications that may lie ahead and decides to say what he came here to confess in the first place, keeping Riario’s calve gently in his hands, exhaling, “I think I am falling for you.”

 _There, it’s out._  

Riario lets out a breathy laugh. “You're… falling for me…” he repeats stupidly, trying to digest that and to decide how to respond to that. It's not that he had not expected the other man to harbour those feelings, but he really had not expected him to admit them to him.

“I… I love you,” Da Vinci mutters, to make himself understood more clearly, sinking on his knees to put the other’s foot onto his thigh. “I want to spend time with you… You make me feel… whole,” he’s looking down sheepishly, clearly not used to admissions like that.

The count knows he is taking too long to respond to that declaration to the point where at any moment he expects Da Vinci to throw another tantrum. But to his surprise the other man seems to have found some patience as he quietly continues to rub the ointment onto his leg again.

“I… will return to Rome,” he answers in the end.

Leo only nods, examining the nicely healing scar, not really knowing what answer he had expected nor exactly knowing what _I love you_ means when you say it to your former enemy who you had once threatened to kill and who had returned the favour more than once. It’s just that, deep inside, it feels right.

“And I do care for Niccolò ,” the count adds to his terms. “I want to spend time with him still. If he wishes to.”

Leonardo looks up, searching for the count’s gaze. A part of him wants to shout at Riario for always bringing Nico up during their intimate conversations. But he understands that these are the terms that he is offered. _Nico is my pupil and my friend. I care lots for him too._ And it's not the first time he's shared a lover with another either. There are benefits to be had from such a relationship. And he does like the idea of exploring something new and exciting like that. _Perhaps polygamy doesn’t sound like such a bad idea._

“Alright,” a smug grin suddenly tugs at the corners of the artist’s mouth. _Maybe I can share not only Rio then but Nico too._ He suddenly starts to see his apprentice in a different light.

 _Alright._ Girolamo is surprised by that response. The way Leonardo had behaved recently, glowing green with jealousy, he had not expected him to agree to his outrageous proposal. But now that he has, the count feels disarmed by the man he has grown to admire and …

“Anche io ti amo,” he whispers very softly when Leonardo does not say anything else, afraid to miss the moment. Ever since his conversation with Nico about love he had  tried to give his conflicting feelings a place. Yes he loves God, more than he will ever love a mortal man. But he had come to the conclusion that there was room for another in his heart. And maybe even two.  

Da Vinci blinks several times at the words and at the tone they’re said in. Did he hear right? Did Girolamo say _Ti amo_ after all? His heart truly races in his chest now. He gently sets the foot on the floor and moves to the count’s side.

He gives his former rival a most tender, chaste kiss, feeling all shaky and like a love sick teenager.

Girolamo swallows and closes his eyes briefly, savouring the moment. “I still struggle to understand how I can feel this way about you,” he sighs.

“So do I,” Leonardo admits, putting their foreheads together. “But it feels right,” he whispers, caressing the other’s beard softly.

“How can this feel right?” Riario asks more of himself than of Leonardo. That question had churned over and over and over in his head ever since he had started to feel butterflies in his stomach each time he caught Leonardo looking at him. Plaguing him to the point of truly feeling on the brink of madness. “I thought that if we would lay together _this_ would go away,” he says. “Once we'd satisfied the perversion.” He grabs Leo's face between his hands, breathing against his lips. “And yet I yearn for you even more.”

“Because it is no perversion, Girolamo,” the artist wraps his fingers around the count’s forearms, relishing the touch. “Two people loving each other, how can that be perversion?” he tries to look through those dark strands of hair obscuring his lover’s eyes now. “Or three?” he carefully gauges as to how far Riario had meant what he had hinted at.

“Da Vinci,” Girolamo says quite seriously though, his God-fearing side now ignoring that last comment, “Leonardo,” he corrects in light of their newfound intimacy. “You are destroying the foundations of everything that I am, everything that I know and believe. You show me new worlds, you tell me that the earth is not the centre of God's creation and now you tell me that we could love one another with His blessing. I…” he draws in a sharp breath, trying to gather his thoughts, “... want to embrace what I feel. But I am afraid,” he admits an almost greater revelation than his love confession.

"Do not be afraid," Leonardo grazes his lips with another soft kiss. He’s feeling his own heart melt at the revelation, knowing how hard this must be for the man of God, who never shows any sign of weakness or fear, to admit that, to get to terms with it in his own head."

“I've killed people for what we've done,” Riario reminds his lover. “And every night I ask God for forgiveness for straying from His path. Yet being with you  feels so … right.” He gently strokes Leonardo's beard. “I wonder at which point I lost my soul to the Devil…”

Leo doesn’t know if he should try to lighten the mood by saying so he’s the devil now or if he better keeps his mouth shut. He gazes into those eyes that have captured him from the first moment they met and considers his options. He marvels in the feeling that yes, Girolamo loves him too, but he does feel the fear radiate from him which hurts him in turn.

 _How can this God Riario believes in make him so scared of love? Why does it matter whether I'm a man?_ He decides to not get worked up about this just now. “I think the moment we met,” he says hoarsely, going with his gut feeling.

Riario looks at Leonardo in surprise. He actually appreciates that the genius does not try and talk him round, does not try to convince him of how all of this is fine and that the beliefs he grew up with are all disproved in one of his crazy theories. He smirks. “I admire you,” he smiles softly. “For the way you see the world. Your belief, even if I disagree with it, seems more steadfast than mine.”

Da Vinci has the urge to kiss the other man again and does so before he answers, “I feel very humbled that you say that.”

He thinks for a moment. “I guess for me, everything and nothing is possible until I can see it with my own eyes. I do not discount your faith, your God, Girolamo. But I have no proof. I can not place my faith in someone else's word, like you can. I want to see it for myself, work it out for myself. And this,” he motions between them, “is what I see. Love. Perhaps if God is open to a man loving two women, He could also approve of the love between two men...?” he dares.  

Girolamo shakes his head at  Leonardo's words, but he smiles softly. “You are  remarkable,” Riario brushes his lips against Leonardo again, parched for him. He pulls Leonardo closer, running his fingers through his hair. “Clearly God favours you despite your ungodly choices and your blasphemy. He must understand therefore why you fascinate me so.”  

Da Vinci closes his eyes briefly, feeling these words reverberate in his chest. As he looks up again Girolamo has come even closer. He closes his lips over the other’s, softly probing his tongue between Riario’s, stroking the side of his neck with his fingertips.

Girolamo groans softly. There truly is something sacred about those talented fingers touching him so gently.

He's never felt this way about anyone before. An equal. Zita was his servant. Nico his prisoner and later his apprentice. He knows all too well that there is a significant power imbalance there, a dominance over his partners through the nature of their relationship. It somehow made it easier for him to drop his defences as he knew deep down he was still in charge. This is completely different though. Opening his heart and soul to Da Vinci is a dangerous game for the both of them, he understands that all too well. _Faith._ He has to believe in Da Vinci, in the trust he has bestowed in him. As much as he expects Leonardo to trust him in turn.

He answers the kiss, slowly, not with the desperate hunger from before. This is exploration. Feeling and tasting each other, fully aware of each sensation.

Leonardo inhales deeply, wanting to enjoy this moment with all of his senses. Make it last, so he can paint the memory forever in his mind. Girolamo’s scent, musky from their travels, unique to his sensitive nostrils. His taste, his soft breathing through their tender kiss.

He lets his hands slide down across his lover’s Adam’s apple towards his revealed chest, marvelling in the fact that even the count had to loosen his attire due to the immense mugginess and heat. He gently strokes his thumb over that smooth skin he finds there, feeling his breath catch in his throat and his arousal rise.

Having rarely desired intimacy with another throughout his life, the Lord of Imola feels like he's making up for lost time with this man. He knows that they only have this journey left. He will return to Rome, as he had said to Da Vinci. And he knows his lover will continue to pursue the Book of Leaves, wherever that may take him next. But even if they would be in touching distance, expressing their love for each other as they are doing now will be out of the question once they are back in Italy. This is their time and he will savour every second of it.

He relaxes further back still, pulling Leonardo up on his lap as his body fills with an intense heat once more. “Leo…” he moans into his mouth.

“Rio…” Leonardo tries out the nickname he’d already revealed to Zo, searching for the reaction in his eyes as he says it as gently as his nickname was spoken. He feels butterflies in his stomach when the count calls him Leo just as when he calls him _artista._

 _Rio…_ “I like that,” Riario smiles. He had been called many things in his life and carries many titles. But this is something unique, something that no-one has ever called him. It feels incredibly intimate.

Leonardo straddles his lap willingly to fully concentrate on the miracle he caresses with his bare hands right now. Shoulders, muscular biceps, forearms. That slender body saved his life in hand to hand combat with Inca natives. He gets aroused by the thought that there is so much power hidden inside the pious man. Da Vinci moves his pelvis a little to press his growing interest into the count’s, realising with pleasure that he’s greeted by the same.

“You are beautiful,” the count compliments his lover. “Ti amo,” he says again the words he'd never before said to anyone, not even Zita.

"Il mio amore," Leonardo murmurs, his fingertips tracing the count’s aristocratic features. “How about we move somewhere a little more comfortable…,” he suggests, eyeing the bunk in the corner that is now beginning to feel like his own bed.

Girolamo nods, thinking how obscene it is the amount of time he spends making out with this man, but wanting it all the same. He helps Leonardo stand up, and allows the other to help him to his feet also. “This leg will never heal at this rate,” he mocks, as he struggles to put weight on it now. “Perhaps I should rest it rather than put more pressure on,” he adds regretfully as he leans on Leonardo's shoulder, even though his cock is telling him otherwise.

Leo helps the count onto the bed, whispering huskily, "There’s not necessarily the need for you to put pressure on your leg..."

Riario throws Leonardo a sideways glance as he pulls open his shirt. “What do you propose, _medico_?” he smirks, wondering what position his partner favours.

"Just relax," Leonardo slides his hands across that wide expanse of golden skin, taking the material out of Riario’s hands and pulls the shirt off. He kisses his man everywhere he can reach as he lowers him slowly onto the mattress out of straw.

The count throws his head back under those delightful kisses, letting Da Vinci take charge. The tenderness of those caresses is in such stark contrast with how they had fucked so far. He is already highly aroused and pushes his pelvis up a little each time the other brushes against him. “Leonardo....” he says like a prayer.

“Girolamo,” Da Vinci breathes against that hot skin as shivers run down his spine when his own name is said with such affection. He asks the count for permission with his eyes as he starts to unlace both their trousers. Even though they didn’t part that long ago, there is such a longing for that man in him, he’s never felt before. All the others he’s lain with were like experiments, like toys. This feels like he has grown up himself now and found the person who’s melting his heart and soul.  

Girolamo makes little noises in approval when Leonardo's hand slides inside his trousers. This is a new experience for him also. When he'd slept with Nico the first time it was a desperation and a comfort on both their sides in what felt like their last hour on earth. The times thereafter that he had lain with Nico and then Leonardo those encounters had been attempts to satisfy his warped feelings, to still his unholy lust. This is different. He wants this now, not just with his body, but with his heart too. He feels more aware of all of his senses than ever before. Leonardo seems to trigger them all with his words, his touches, the taste on his tongue, the smell of his sex.

He pulls the younger man into another deep long kiss, savouring him, exploring him.

“Rio…” Leonardo breaks the luscious kiss just to breathe the invented name of his lover against his lips once more only to increase their tongue play after. He leisurely circles and moves his hips, making them both moan into each other’s mouths with growing desire. His agile fingers making quick work in pulling off their trousers.

As soon as they slide together the count has his hands all over Leonardo's back and his ass, squeezing him, his blunt nails scratching the bronzed skin. He feels the fire burn in the pit of his belly and he tries to switch their positions to take their wrestling to the next level, but is surprised when Leonardo stops him and pins his arms above his head. “I need…” he growls softly, baring his teeth as he is obstructed in executing his desire.

“Shhh no pressure on your leg, remember?” Riario’s medico instructs playfully as he roams one of his hands all over the newly exposed skin. He takes his time to explore his lover with his eyes and his lips. Drinking him in inch by inch, savouring the treasure that is Count Riario, something he had not been able to do on their previous encounters.

The count fights his instinct to take charge, allowing Da Vinci to control him, enjoying those tempting touches everywhere until he feels crazy with want. He thinks about Leonardo's lips on his manhood the night before and the image alone makes him weep with pleasure, pleading silently for his lover to give him relief. “Artista!” he begs.

Da Vinci feels what’s behind the desperate cry, he’s highly aroused himself from mapping out that gorgeous body. He gives in and engulfs him fully. His fingers searching for more hidden treasure to make the man of the Church lose his senses completely. He looks up into Girolamo’s hooded eyes from under his lashes.

The count moans unashamedly, digging his now free hand in the long strands of hair of his lover. This forbidden pleasure is beyond all imagination. His brain still bucks at all of this but his heart and body embrace every sinful touch.

He spreads his legs in an automatic motion to get more comfortable but then freezes when he feels Leonardo's fingers touch him so very intimately. “Da Vinci…” he hisses a warning, clenching involuntarily.

"Rio… you’re delicious," Leonardo breathes between pleasuring the count with his tongue. His fingers gently stroke, press and probe, feeling muscles lose a little as Riario gasps and writhes.

Initially Riario had wanted to reject what Leonardo is doing to him. Sleeping with Nico had been one thing, but with the power and age difference between them it was not something that he had not seen before even within the walls of the Vatican itself. Sleeping with a man who's his equal twice now had already pushed the boundaries and he's sure he's lost his soul. But this…

And yet he holds his tongue. Yet he closes his eyes and enjoys the strange feeling of those loving, gentle touches. His breath is shallow now and he makes little whimpering noises that are not wholly within his control anymore.

Leonardo is sure he might fly across the room at any moment now as he moves himself between his lover’s legs, stroking the count's thighs and his straining manhood affectionately. “I’m going to make you feel so good, my treasure,” he whispers as he moves forward, making his intention clear with nervous anticipation of how his lover will react to his suggestion.

Riario freezes as soon as he feels Leonardo brush his tip against his most intimate place and in reflex he closes himself up and grabs his lover by the throat. He opens his mouth to say something but nothing comes out as he looks into Leonardo's wide eyes. He instantly loosens his grasp again, his heart racing. “I…” he feels his face flush which is so unlike him. “I don't know…”

Leonardo had drawn back quickly as he felt the count tighten up into fighting mood. “That's alright,” he says in a soothing voice. “We don’t have to… I can… ” he resumes stroking the other’s body with his palms, across that arm that’s still outstretched and holding his throat. He locks their gazes. He had been foolish to think passion would just overwrite Riario’s instincts. He looks at him with all the love he’s feeling deep inside.

“How… do you…?” Girolamo asks as he pulls back his hand and strokes Leonardo's cheek instead. “To accept another…?” He looks away briefly. “How can I lie before you like a woman, Leonardo? It's abhorrent for a man to commit such an unnatural act.” He looks up to Leonardo again who looks back at him with so much love that it melts away all of Riario's convictions. “And yet you did for me. You are arrogant and narcissistic,” he says harshly, grinning, “yet you willingly submitted yourself to me. And seemed to take pleasure from it…” he smirks, trying to process how a man like Da Vinci is able to do that. _Curious_.

 _Arrogant and narcissistic; such a charmer!_ Da Vinci grins though and leans into the touch, keeping his whole body as close to his lover as possible, considering what he’s heard, choosing his own words carefully and to not spook his insecure lover.  "Yes, I took immense pleasure from those acts with you," he whispers, his fingertips stroking over Riario’s stomach, "And I will happily do it again." He turns his head and kisses the palm that’s so gently caressing his cheek, "But did that feel to you like I am a woman?"

“No!” Girolamo answers without hesitation. Nico had been different, with his soft skin, his slender build and his blonde curls. He is the kind of boy that would drive any Italian man into sin. Perhaps not a woman, but almost sexless. Like a true angel. But Da Vinci… As he thinks about their coupling his body already sparks with arousal again. There is nothing feminine about the artist,  with his bulging muscles, his rough touches, his marred skin. Their mating had felt primal, more like hand to hand combat, a measuring of strength, a show of skill. And if he's truly honest with himself it's those things that make him so horny for this man.

He pulls Leonardo back towards him and presses his lips against him. “I desire you so, Leo,” he admits both to his lover and himself. He pulls the other man slowly on top of him again, enveloping him in his strong embrace, slowly lowering his barriers. “Teach me then,” he whispers softly.

Leaning forward, Leonardo gets into the perfect position. He kisses the count thoroughly, pouring all his whirlwind emotions into the movement of his tongue. His fist sneaks between their bodies and envelops Riario’s manhood. As he feels the other moving his hips a little, he ever so gently pushes forward, trembling with anticipation, knowing how blessed he is that Riario uttered these words of permission to him. He’s trembling all over with both love and lust. 

Initially it really feels like fighting in that it takes Girolamo all of his well trained self control to push back any fear, to ignore the pain and to keep his mind calm and focused. But once Leonardo has breached him it is nothing like what he had imagined. Despite the discomfort there is also intense pleasure and most of all the intimacy and love in allowing Leonardo to be inside of him.

He feels the sweat pearl on his skin as he drowns in the scent of his lover’s arousal. This feeling of unity, of being part of each other is so overwhelming. “Sei incredibile…” he moans and other similar words of wonder and praise as his body welcomes all of Da Vinci.

It takes all of Leonardo’s willpower to not come as soon as he enters the man he thought would reject him this pleasure just moments ago. Girolamo’s virginity grasps him, pulls him in instead of pushing him out. His body aroused and wanting, needing, from the sounds of his voice. He stares down at his partner, licking his lips in concentration. “Ti amo, Rio,” he rasps over and over, his skin and mind tingling with a thousand new sensations.

“Hai il mio cuore,” Girolamo whispers back as he brushes Leonardo's wild strands out of his face. He meets his lover in their passionate dance, building up speed, kissing him passionately as his body pulses with this odd pleasure.

This doesn’t feel like anything Da Vinci has experienced before. It’s so powerful it might consume him whole. It’s like he’s drawn into a spiral of unbearable desire and pleasure all at once, love and wonder. Their giving and taking is without any hesitation now. It might feel like flying. He shows no restraint anymore, losing himself into the count’s depths he offers so willingly now. Body and soul.

“Artista,” Girolamo gasps as the stirring in his core suddenly gives him a rush of ecstasy like he's never felt before. He digs his fingers into Leonardo's shoulder blades as he curves up from the mattress to seek that sensation again.

Leonardo curses, his climax building inevitably as his lover so obviously enjoys what he’s doing. He squeezes his eyes shut briefly but drowns in Girolamo’s as he lets everything go.

“Vieni per me!” Riario pleads, surprising himself. He had never thought he would beg for that but in the heat of their battle he desires nothing more to have his lover lose himself completely in him.

Da Vinci’s body does just that as he’s so unexpectedly begged. He wants to share his everything with this man and graces him with his precious fluid, moaning and groaning and shouting and weeping all at once.

Girolamo isn't sure whether he's in heaven or hell but the pleasure is spectacular regardless. Da Vinci's gasps and moans reach into his very soul, sparking a chain reaction that he has no control over. He isn't sure whether he utters the curses in his head or out loud as he comes undone under the artist's ministrations. Every fibre in his body seems to thrum with the rhythm of his fast heartbeat.

As Leo feels Girolamo creaming his chest and stomach, his own violent trembling very slowly subsiding, his breath so ragged in his throat as though he’s run for miles, he lowers himself onto his man, nose buried into the crock of his neck, very close to what he knows is passing out. His mind is completely blank and his heart is singing with love. He murmurs a tender chain of endearments against Girolamo's neck, half wishing he won’t hear them since some are so embarrassingly sweet.

Girolamo can't move, won't move, not wanting to break the spell that keeps them bound together. He wraps his arms even tighter around Leonardo, threading his good leg across him also as if to keep him prisoner within the bars of his own limbs. There are a thousand words he wants to whisper back but he says none as each falls short to convey the depth of his feelings right now.

He turns his head into Leonardo's damp hair, closing his eyes as he drifts on the embers of their fire. “I love you, my dreamer,” he whispers in Leo’s ear with a wicked smile.

Da Vinci is surprised that Girolamo uses the foreign priestess’ nickname for him. But since it sums up their adventures together in one single word it warms him up from the inside even more and he decides that he likes it when Rio calls him that. He lifts his head a and grins back just as wickedly. “You’ve just made my dreams come true.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anche io ti amo - I love you also  
> Vieni per me - Come for me  
> Hai il mio cuore - You have my heart


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience dear readers. We have now finished this fic and will be publishing the remaining chapters over the coming days :) ENJOY!

Leonardo gives the arm of the prototype another gentle push, watching it spin around the centre pin again and again, the motion slowing down when the momentum fades. He doesn't look up when he hears the door of the cabin open as he makes tiny adjustments to the fittings.

“Another try to convince your new lover?” Zo says more sarcastically as he intended to, peering over Leo’s shoulder.

Leo is surprised to hear Zo's voice behind him, but he is too focused on the integrate little cogs to look up. “Convince him of what?” he mutters, trying to ignore the sharp edge in Zo's comment.

“That you’re right,” Zo walks around the workbench, looking at the quickly build model of the universe in awe, hiding it well though. “And you desperately want him to believe you.”

He sits on the nearby chair and puts his boots up near the model, crossing his arms across his chest, looking at Leonardo challengingly.

Leo briefly glances up at Zo but then returns his eyes to his model again. “It doesn't matter if he believes me,” he says, but he knows already it's a lie. “He can have his beliefs. That doesn't change the truth. Anyway,” he wipes his greasy hands on the cloth on his lap and looks at Zo more intently now, “why do you care?”

 _Why do I care?_ Zo scratches his beard and looks up at his friend, wondering why he’s so bothered even after Riario offered him a truce. _I’m jealous._ The thought suddenly flits through his mind. Before their perilous adventures in the New World Zo had Leonardo all to himself - and Nico - even though it was ‘give me this’, ‘fetch me that’ almost all of the time. Now every other sentence of the genius has the word _Riario_ in it and it itches. He wants to stay a loyal friend but the count’s presence everywhere is slowly getting on his nerves. “Because I care about you.” _Don’t want him to drive you more nuts than you already are._

The engineer scratches his nose with the end of the wrench, frowning at Zo. “I know you do.” He bites his lip, feeling his heart thump a little faster in his chest as he decides whether or not to confide in his best friend. _Nico is bound to tell him even if don't_. “I er… I kissed Nico …” he says awkwardly.

“You what?” Zo gapes at Leo like a fish for a few moments, “What brought that on now?” His heart makes an odd leap and he doesn’t know why. _Does that mean the infatuation with Riario isn’t as deep as I thought it is?_

“He's a fine young man now, don't you think,” Leonardo doesn't answer the question as he begins to polish the wrench his cloth, just to have something to do, something to look at other than Zo.

“Indeed he is,” Zoroaster gets up again, “seems like it needed count Riario to make us aware of the fact that he’s no boy anymore. He throws his arm around the other’s shoulder. “But… erm… didn’t you just tell me the other day that you’re falling for the _Captain General?”_ he mocks good naturedly.

“I'm am. I have,” Leo sighs, feeling frustrated with the confusion that Girolamo and Nico have stirred in him. “I'm just not sure… One moment I think he feels the same. And then…” He throws the cloth avg the wrench on the table. “I don't really know what he wants. Or what I want…” _I do. I want him to be mine alone!_ he groans inwardly. “Or Nico for that matter,” he moans out loud, running his hands through his long hair.

Zo chuckles. It’s seldom that he sees his best friend so torn by people. Normally he doesn’t give a shit.

“I’m sorry if I seem a bit dense but why did you kiss Nico all of a sudden? Did the wicked count ask you to have a threesome or something?” He pushes at the little ball that is supposed to be earth with his finger. “He made a very strange remark towards me. That I’m the only one he now misses in his collection…” he trails off.  

Leo frowns deeply at that,  feeling his heart give a painful pang. “He's just winding you up,” he says as casually as he can muster. “You bite too easily.” But then again… “He didn't exactly… not in those words… But he did say he still cares for Nico. I just thought… Perhaps if I can feel that way about Nico too, it might make it okay. To share somehow…” He looks at Zo pleadingly now.   

Zo feels his heart melt at the confused expression in Leonardo’s eyes and the uncertain tone in his voice. The man is normally so sure and full of himself and now he’s lost like a little puppy. The magician has the impulse to hug his friend close but resists with all the talk about those other men in his life now. “And did it feel the same?” Zo asks curiously. He’s always loved kissing Leonardo when they got too carried away in their experimenting. In fact, it makes him quite excited thinking about it. But he knows he hasn’t got a chance for something serious with the genius. He’s fine with their friendship, for him that counts way more than the always disposable lovers of the eccentric maestro.   

“No,” Leo answers honestly. “Please don't say that Nico; I don't want to hurt his feelings.” _Again!_ “And anyway, it's not his fault. He's a good kisser. It just felt … weird. I just cannot see him like that. He's my friend. And more importantly my novizo. I know it shouldn't matter, but to me it felt… not right.”

“How does it feel with me?” Zo blurts out without thinking, feeling relieved that Leo still sees Nico just as a friend.

“With you?” Leo looks up at Zo in surprise. “Good of course!”

 _Yes!! Should I kiss him now?_ Zo wonders if this is an appropriate moment. Normally their kissing occurs at a certain level of alcohol and never in serious, soul searching situations. His heart makes a big leap at the admission though. “I’m glad,” he says, grabbing Leo by the shoulders, turning him around to face him, smirking.

Leo looks into Zo's warm, comforting eyes, feeling all the tension drain from his shoulders at his friend's touch. Then he jumps as there is a firm rap on the door.

Count Riario smirks at the two men. “Did I interrupt something?” he raises an eyebrow.

 _Fuck yes! I was just about to give MY friend kissing lessons._ “Nothing,” Zo slides his arm possessively across Leo’s shoulders again as they face the count together.

Leo feels all those weird and wonderful electric pulses play down his spine and into his stomach when he sees the handsome Roman. _Damn, he's really got to me_! “Count,“ he nods, but his voice sounds croaky and odd to him. He wriggles out of Zo's embrace and steps towards the bench with the heliocentric model on it.

“Nico said you wanted to show me something,” the count looks curiously at Leo, wondering why the other man is here too.

“Ah yes,” Leo steps a little to the side to allow the count to step closer and see his scale model.

As always Zo shoves the disappointment of suddenly being invisible to Leonardo far away, putting on his usual nonchalant attitude. He grabs the nearby goblet of wine and waits for the master to explain his new theory.

“Nico told me you had built another one of your pagan devices. Tell me then, maestro Da Vinci,” Count Riario grins, “why you think that the sun does not evolve around the earth.”  
  
"It’s obvious,” Leonardo says excitedly as he moves around his prototype, keen to show the count proof of the fact that the sun really is the centre of the universe. He takes the two larger light coloured balls and places them on the two rotating arms. “These are the sun and Venus,” he explains. Then he takes the small dark ball and places it in the centre. “And this one is the earth.” He looks briefly up at Girolamo who looks back at him with those hypnotising eyes that almost make him forget what he was saying. He awkwardly clears his throat, forcing his attention back to science rather than desire. “Venus appears in the night sky the same as the moon. We can see her because like the moon she reflects the light of the sun.” He gives the rotating arms a push and waits for the count to speak.  
  
“And how does that prove your theory?” Girolamo asks as he studies the device. “This shows things exactly as they are, with God's creation at its centre.”  
  
Leonardo shakes his head, trying his best to stay at this man's level in terms of explaining the workings of the universe. “Look!” he says a little frustratedly as it’s so obvious. “If the sun and Venus both orbit the Earth then they would always be at the same distance from us. Venus closer than the sun. Right?” He demonstrates what he's saying again by moving the arms around again. “Right?!” he adds more firmly when no-one answers.

“Yes,” Riario nods. He had not spent much time studying the stars except for on this wretched journey and surely that had done them little good when they had run aground on the rocks anyway. “And?” he waits for Leonardo to explain himself.

“Well they aren’t!” Leonardo exclaims in frustration. “Sometimes the sun is closer to us and sometimes Venus is.” He cocks his head at count Riario who surely must by now see what he's saying. “Look!” he sighs, taking the balls off the pins and swapping the earth and the sun so that the latter is in the middle. “See. We see Venus in its full phase when it's on the other side of the sun. And now…” he moves the model in the heliocentric way, “...sometimes Venus is closer to us than the sun. Because both planets orbit the sun!” He pushes the arms around once more, grinning at the count.  
  
But Riario just looks back with a guarded look. “A fascinating theory,” he says slowly.  
  
“It's not a theory!” Leonardo growls softly. “It is the _only_ explanation. How can you not … Zo, you saw it!”

“It _IS_ the only explanation,” Zo looks smugly at the count. At first he had doubts of his own when Leo explained it to him on the ship, lack of sleep clearly clouding both their senses. But now he can see what his friend is seeing and he forgets about his own irritating feelings as he’s yet again swept away by Leonardo’s grasp of the universe and his ability to make things visible for others to understand it too. 

Riario throws Zoroaster a measured look. “Well done, maestro Da Vinci, for convincing the fortune-teller,” he sneers at the Jew. “Unfortunately, that would not be enough to persuade the Church.”

At the comment Zo feels the familiar rage start to boil again inside and he takes the few steps towards count Riario and wraps his hands around his throat, squeezing tight. “You prick! How dare you doubt Da Vinci!”

“Zo!” Leo jumps between the two men, peeling his friend off his lover. “Quit it!” he pushes Zo a little back, throwing him a warning look. Then he turns to the count. “It doesn't matter whether _your_ church believes me or not. It's the truth,” he grits his teeth, not wanting to argue with his lover in front of Zo but at the same time he cannot ignore what is clear before his eyes and he feels compelled to stand up for science as much as the Captain General stands up for the church.

“Truth?” Riario raises his eyebrow as he straightens his shirt. “You think your _toy_ will outweigh the word of God given to us by the Holy Father?”

Leonardo feels his annoyance intensify as Riario talks about the Pope and dismisses his model as a _toy_. “Do you expect me to ignore what I can see with my own eyes because it doesn't suit your father’s plan?” he says sharply as he turns back to his model, already picturing how he can expand it into a large scale model.

Zo likes where this is going. He can see Leo’s agitation that clearly overwrites his fondness for the Count.

Riario feels the hairs on his neck stand up as the man he admires challenges his faith so. “This is not about my father's plan,” he gives Leo a warning look. “But not everything, Leonardo, is seen with your eyes only. There are endless riddles beyond even your comprehension. Do not think you can solve them all. And do not be so arrogant to suggest that only what Leonardo di se Piero da Vinci can prove can exist. The Bible…”

“You didn't care what _the Bible_ says when you let me sodomise you!” Leonardo shouts at Riario as he pushes all of his buttons at once.

Almost as soon as the words are out Leonardo regrets them and he hears even Zo sharply suck in the air at that. He opens his mouth to try and apologise or offer any form of mitigation, but before he's able to formulate anything that would go some way to undo the damage, Riario's hand cuts sharply across his cheek.

Without a word, just with the throbbing imprint of his hand as a silent reprimand, the count storms out of the little cabin, slamming the door behind him.

Zo whistles through his teeth when he learns that the count had actually bottomed for Da Vinci. “Damn Leo, that was a bit harsh to throw _that_ in his face, don't you think? Even for a dick such as him.” He studies his friend carefully, ignoring the gnawing feeling of what he admits to is jealousy in his stomach.

Leo gapes at Zo for sticking up for the count. _That_ is almost more shocking than the slap he'd received and it really reinforces how badly he's fucked up. “I know,” he croaks. “I shouldn't have said that. Shit!” He sinks down in the chair in the corner, feeling numb. He wonders how badly he's just damaged his still fragile blossoming affair with the count. Pretty badly, he can imagine. He thinks how carefully, tenderly he had tried to reassure Girolamo that opening himself up to him in such a way was alright, that it wasn't perversion. And now he's not only reminded the count of the sinful acts that he had coerced him into, but he's embarrassed him in front of Zoroaster, sharing the most intimate secrets of their coupling with someone Riario resents with all his being. “I told him I love him,” he groans as he buries his face in his hands. “He must despise me now.”

Zo inhales sharply, ruffling through his own wild curls to get a decent thought. “You truly suck at relationship related things, maestro.” He decides to try it the funny way, shaking his head. “He must be mortified that you revealed to me that he took you up his fine Catholic arse.”

Leonardo chokes on his stifled laughter at Zo's crude observations,despite the churning feeling in the pit of his stomach. “A very fine arse,” he grins through his curtain of hair. He sighs again, brushing the strands back behind his ears and straightens his back. “I need to apologise to him. Even if he kills me for it.”

“Maybe best take your sword,” Zo suggests. “And I don’t mean the one in your trousers,” he grins. He can’t help to add, “You’ve got a very fine backside yourself… _artista,”_ he mimicks Riario.

For a fleeting moment Leonardo feels this funny little loop that his heart makes as he catches Zo's eyes as he says that. But he brushes it off as the word _artista_ apparently being some sort of aphrodisiac for him now. He claps Zo's forearm, smiling. “And you have a fine sword, my friend,” he winks. “And I do mean the one in your trousers.” He doesn't wait for a response though as he gathers his things and quickly chases after his offended lover.

Zo sighs as he looks after the man he has known since they were just a little more than boys. He’s aware that he loves him deeply as his best friend and that he'd give his life for him as he's proven so often. But with Riario rivaling for Leo's attention, the fortune teller wonders if there is something else going on inside of him. The thought of the engineer wandering off to Rome and out of his life scares him more and more.

He gives earth a last push and goes to find Nico.

+++

“I...I came to a... apologise,” Leonardo croaks as he is allowed to enter the count's cabin. He had knocked at the door, expecting entry to be denied. The confirming yes, had thrown him off balance even more.

The count is sat at the little writing desk sidelong to the doorway. He does not look up though when Leonardo enters his cabin, not even when he hears that most unusual phrase from the self-absorbed genius. “What for?” he simply asks briskly as he continues to write in the notebook in front of him.

 _What for?_ Leo frowns, closing the door firmly. “For...For having betrayed you. I...I didn't mean to…” he still stammers, feeling stupid. The count's ultra calm demeanour grating on his nerves.   

The Roman snorts at that and slowly turns to face his lover. “It was not your place to say what you said,” he says coolly. “But I care less what your savage guard dog thinks about my sin than God Almighty. In that respect perhaps I should thank you for reminding me so boldly of my straying from the righteous path.”  

Leonardo curses himself for having ruined all the hard work he’d put into convincing the man of the Church about how love isn't straying from the righteous path. He even considers begging, but he's still too hurt in his pride about the way Riario dismissed his model. “Rio, I…” he starts, sounding desperate. _Oh fuck it!_ He quickly moves towards the desk, swiftly putting his fingers beneath the other's chin and kissing him deeply.

Every fibre in the count's body tenses and he grabs the artist hard by his open shirt. However, instead of listening to his sensibility and pushing the other man away, his pathetic need for this man pulls him in closer instead, answering that inappropriate kiss with a mixture of desperation and anger.

The vicious onslaught makes Leonardo hard in an instant. He hadn't expected from the count to kiss him back like that, to engage in an angry battle of tongues. He grabs for the back of the other's neck, pressing them closer together, not caring if he damages the papers he’s leaning on with his other hand.

Riario scrambles to his feet, ignoring the sharp pain in his leg but not liking the sensation of the other leaning over him. He never breaks the kiss though, crashing his mouth against Leonardo's still, as if he sells to take the breath from the man with this kiss alone. “Be damned, Da Vinci!” he growls into the other’s mouth.

“I am damned,” Leo chuckles drunkenly. The now familiar excitement sparking up his whole body as he pulls Riario close by his collar, sliding his hands down that impressive muscular back. He rubs his palms over that desired arse, humming into the harsh lip lock, unreasonably grateful that the Captain General had not thrown him out but yet pulled him under his spell again. _What is this man doing to me? What is it that turns me on like that? Lets me forget all reason?_

 _Lord have mercy,_ Girolamo prays silently as he roughly turns the both of them around and pushes the Florentine onto the bunk of his cabin. _Why do I allow this man to condemn me?_ he questions himself again as he plucks at Leo's trousers.

“Fuck me, count,” the war engineer begs unashamedly. It can’t be quick enough this time. He wants his rival to punish him for what he’d said earlier, wants to compare their strength in this game. Wants the almost brutal giving and taking they’d practiced before. Wants to be one with the count. If not in their thinking, then in their passion.

“I should kill you for this,” Riario bites the juncture between Da Vinci's neck and shoulder. “Not indulge you in this abomination.” And yet he already has the other's trousers on the floor and his own halfway around his ankles. He doesn't bother to undress them more. This isn't the tender love making that led him into sin the other night. This is fighting for survival for his desires will surely drive him insane if they remain unanswered a moment longer.

“Shut up,” Leonardo crushes their mouths together again as he moves himself into position to receive Riario’s sword, his body aching for it. For a brief moment he wonders how his patient manages with his injured leg but he dismisses the thought. They’re in fighting mood. The adrenaline surely erased the sensation of pain in the other warrior’s brain.

“You bastard!” Riario groans as he sinks himself into his rival turned lover. No mercy. He will make sure that Leonardo remembers what his blasphemous tongue earns him.

 _Holy fuck!_ The artist squeezes his eyes shut as that mighty weapon is thrust into him. He tries to relax his inner muscles as he grabs for the count’s shoulders for support, tearing his worn shirt in the process. He does feel punished as he’s instantly filled up. Both pain and pleasure battling inside of him. “Bastard...yourself,” he hisses, arching up against the other.

“I guess we were made for each other then,” Riario huffs, his eyes rolling back as he’s gripped so very tight by Da Vinci. He kisses him furiously again, slamming into him with a force that makes the furniture creak in complaint. “And we will... burn in hell... together for this,” he moans.

“Oh damn, YES!” Leonardo agrees, feeling like on the way to hell very much already. He grabs for his own cock, pulling at it furiously as he sucks the count’s tongue into his mouth hungrily. The pressure and friction inside his channel driving him wild.

The captain general is torn. When he’d pinned the man who'd embarrassed him underneath him he wanted to punish him, wanted to hurt him. Wanted to wipe all those crazy ideas from his head. “You're reckless,” he hisses as his orgasm builds rapidly. “You’re a fool!”

The artist starts to laugh l, “I...hear...thatalot.” He stares up into those expressive eyes that are now clouded with lust, obscured from sweaty strands of hair, into these aristocratic features he has grown to admire. They still hold anger. The same anger he feels as well. But it doesn’t matter for now. Now he rides the waves of unleashed pleasure with the man who infuriates him so.

“Rio!” he gasps as the friction between their bodies and the ruthless ramming into him drives him over the edge.

“I fucking... hate you,” Riario moans as he comes undone, “for… making me feel… this way, nghff.” He collapses heavily onto Da Vinci, semen and sweat smeared between them.

Leonardo takes a while to catch his breath, winding his arms and legs around the count, keeping him in place. “Must be an awful sensation,” he nuzzles his nose against the other’s temple. “Especially since we rushed very much to get there…”

Riario doesn't move, just listens to their hearts beating so fast together, feeling the sensation of Leonardo pressed against him, wrapped around him. He inhales the smell of their passionate encounter, his eyes closed as a thousand emotions wash over him. “What do you want from me?” he eventually managed to whisper in Leo's ear.

“I want you like this,” Da Vinci responds instantly, loving the ghost of breath against his ear, the count’s deep voice so close.  “You make me feel complete,” he whispers. “I want you to believe me. I want for us to push each other further in our beliefs because I’ve never met someone before I can spar with in thinking. I want your brilliant brain to work with me as we did in the Vault.” The Florentine stops speaking, not wanting to praise the count too much after their quarrel from earlier. He rubs his calve and his palms across the other’s heated skin, utterly relieved that it ended in this kind of fight and not one of fists.

Girolamo sighs, brushing his lips lightly against Leonardo's salty skin. “Do you seek to eradicate faith, Leo?” he murmurs. “What do you hope the Book of Leaves will teach you? Will teach the world?”

“All there is to know!” the scientist blurts out excitedly, moving to sit up a little. He pulls his lover with him to not lose their intimate contact. His mind is whirling about the other question. _Do I seek to eradicate faith?_ He’s never really thought about that. _Faith seems useless,_ he thinks, very careful to _not!_ say that out loud.

The count pulls off his soiled shirt to wash later, but pulls his trousers back up. He stays on the bed though, thirsting for this human contact that he's been so bereft of in life. “What if…” he says softly, starting to give voice to the thoughts that had plagued him ever since their escape from the Vault of Heaven, “what if some mysteries are best left unsolved. What if God did not want us to find the book, Leo, for it is not for us to hold such knowledge.” _I was wrong to pursue this. Now I see._

Leonardo scrunches up his nose, having a hard time to not jump up in frustration as Riario starts to irritate him yet again with faith and God. He grabs for the other’s hand with both of his since he lacks his pen and notebook, staring at him, “What is wrong with knowledge, Rio?” 

Riario considers the question for a moment, just looking into those expressive, clever eyes. “Knowledge… is powerful,” he says contemplatively. He brushes a strand of Leonardo's hair back, smiling softly. “God is All-knowing, Leo. So you seek to rival Him? Do you think that His creation is ready to wield such a powerful weapon as knowledge? Are _you_?”

The caring gesture and the questions contradict Leonardo’s feelings to the point that he thinks he might be split in half. He tries to focus his thoughts, rubbing his thumbs over the back of Riario’s hand again and again, remembering how he’s despised for thinking differently, for inventing new things, for questioning everything.

“I don’t believe in leaving things just the way they are, Girolamo. I create new things!”  He looks at the man of the Church with intensity

Girolamo smiles and nods. “So you do and I admire you for it. But does the birth of the new have to result in the death of the old? Does your science preclude faith? I have seen those who have lost their faith. And the anarchy it leaves in its wake. There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt*, Da Vinci.”

Leonardo scratches his nose. “I do not seek to eradicate faith,” he says slowly. “But for me, even knowledge is not enough. I want to apply it. I look around me and see the greatness mankind can achieve. And yet everyone around me still seems asleep.” He looks at the count again, smiling. “Surely God would want us to reach our potential? If He's blessed us with intellect, with imagination and vision would He not want us to use it?”  

Girolamo smiles at Da Vinci's convincing argument. “Indeed,” he nods. “Perhaps in the same miraculous way that you and I have learnt to co-exist, our convictions can as well.”

He smirks at his lover as he pulls the conversation into a different direction altogether. “And how did you like to kiss with Nico?” he asks, lavishing in Leo's startled expression.  

The artist suddenly stops his motion and his eyes go wide as sauce pans. “Why? What?” he stammers, his brain having a hard time to accommodate to the 180 degrees topic change.

“Come now, Da Vinci, you know me better than that,” Girolamo grins, relaxing into his side as he throws Leonardo a sultry look. “I always make sure I know what is going on.” He threads his arms casually behind his head. “In any case, Niccolo told me. Before he told me about the sun model.”

Leonardo groans loudly at that, “Of course you do know what’s going on.” He flips on his side, looking at the man of his desire. “Kissing with Nico wasn’t as exciting as with you,” he says truthfully. “I see him in a different way now though. Grown up and as a young man, not the boy I took under my wings in the first place.” He can’t keep his hands off Riario and starts to draw circles around his belly button with his index finger.

The Roman man finds that surprisingly agreeable to hear. _Not as exciting as with you_. A part of him is overjoyed and the tender touch sends pleasant shivers through him. _What do you want, Girolamo?_ another part continues to question his poor choices and decisions. He cannot answer that right now though and so he closes his eyes and lets the artist’s fingers explore him like a sculpture.


	8. Chapter 8

“What did Count Riario think of the heliocentric model?” Nico asks, trying to sound casual as he throws his pack of cards in front of Zoroaster. He wonders where the other two men have gone since he'd expected to find them here still arguing their respective convictions.

“Nothing much,” Zo takes the cards and starts to shuffle them quickly and expertly. “They almost ended up in hand to hand combat,” he mutters.

“Nothing much? Hand to hand combat?” Nico frowns at his friend as he sits down opposite him. He glances at the model that he had helped build. “Girolamo wasn't impressed?”

Zo looks a bit stunned at the blond man as he uses the count's first name, but catches himself. “Leo got fed up with him not wanting to believe in his science and his too quick tongue got away with him and as a result he got smacked in the face.” Zoroaster hands out the cards, “Leo went after him to apologise…” he trails off, his heart getting heavy at the thought.

 _What did the maestro say to warrant such an assault?_ Nico wonders but he feels it would be inappropriate to ask what the two older men argued about. He picks up the cards and begins to sort his hand. “The count once told me that love and hate are two sides of the same coin,” he murmurs. “That seems to be very appropriate when it comes to the captain…”

Zo thinks about the whole scene again. He was about to say that the Roman only loves God, but then he had bottomed for Leonardo. “I don't know. He's a complete riddle to me.” He pours them some more wine. “One _I_ surely don't want to solve. I'll be glad when this goddamn journey is over.” He gulps the liquid down in one go.

Nico throws his opening card on the table. On the one hand he agrees with Zo and he longs for home. On the other it feels like the closer they get to Italy the closer he is to losing at least one and perhaps even both of the men his heart is fluttering for. “Do you think the maestro’s ideas are dangerous?” he asks, feeling foolish as soon as he's said it. _Of course they are! He strapped you to his flying machine and nearly killed you. He nearly drowned Zo and himself with his under water boat. And then there was the multi canon machine that blew up in his face the first time. Da Vinci likes to play with death like you're playing cards with Zo!_ “I mean… for humanity. What if he really is upsetting God by trying to compete with Him?” he asks awkwardly.

“I don't think Leo tries to compete with God,” Zo strokes his beard thoughtfully. “He just wants to prove to everyone that he's right. That things work _his_ way…” He thinks for a moment. “I also think he wants to invent useful things for humanity.”

Nico feels a little relieved at Zo's response. “You're right,” he nods. It's why he had always agreed to partake in Da Vinci's insane ideas and inventions. He realises though that the adventures in the New World and his strange whirlwind affair with the count have changed how he looks at things now; how he looks at his maestro. He had looked up to Da Vinci with an almost religious devotion. Never questioning and never doubting him. Now he is even more in awe of Leonardo's genius; the way he had navigated those deadly puzzles and saved them all from the natives at the last hour. And yet somehow the playing field has levelled. He too has learned new things. He has matured and he has had a glimpse into a different ideology from someone he now also admires. Somehow it's made Da Vinci more human.

After making his move, Zoroaster suddenly asks, “How did it feel to kiss Leo?”

Nico jolts from his thoughts and blinks at Zo. “Who told you that?” he blurts out, wondering if it was Leo or Girolamo who had shared that bit of information with his friend.

“Who do you think?” Zo questions him right back. “And that's not an answer,” he chuckles, hiding the fact that he'd prefer a not too euphoric answer.

 “I er… I wasn't sure if the maestro had felt it worthy of mentioning…” Nico says quietly, staring hard at his cards so that he doesn't have to look up at his friend.

“He did,” Zo scratches his nose, feeling a bit awkward all of a sudden. “Do you… I mean,” he stammers uncharacteristically, “do you think he wants you and the count?” _And I am just the fifth wheel..._

 _I don't think he wants me…_ Nico bites the inside of his lip. “Why don't you ask Leo that?!” he snaps a little sharply. He puts his hand face down on the table and sighs. “I don't know. I think he wants the count. Well, clearly he does, since he's taking his time to _apologise,_ ” he groans.

“Fuck,” Zo curses, rubbing his chin and smashing his cards on the table. “You know what, Nico?” he nervously cards his fingers through his unruly curls, wondering if he should confide in the man he's always seen as his baby brother, “I'm fucking jealous,” he grumbles and leans back in his chair, rubbing his hands across his face.

“What?” Nico stares at Zoroaster as if he’s just spoken in a foreign tongue. “Of _me_?” he frowns. “Well, I don't think there is anything to be jealous about,” he says sourly. “I'm not sure that I'm not just the distraction when they can't stand each other, only to be shoved aside when they want to reconcile their differences…”

Zo makes a strange snorting sound, something between a groan and a desperate chuckle. “Believe me, I _know_ that feeling,” he says bitterly. “And no, not of you...Of _him! His Grace!”_ The Jew spits out the words. “He's taking up all pf the space beside Leo and inside his head…” he muses out loud. _And inside his arse!_

Nico narrows his eyes at the man who'd been closer than a brother to him for as long as he can remember. Of course he knows that he and Leo used to play bedsports every once in awhile when they were a little drunk. When there hadn't been anyone else on the scene for a while. Even sometimes when the maestro would get so frustrated and worked up over an invention not turning out quite how he imagined. Zo would _‘give his mind some rest and his body some distraction’,_ in the man's own words. But whilst Nico cannot imagine two closer friends, somehow he had not once believed that there was more to it. It was just the way they were. They fucked like they sparred and argued and worked together. Now he crosses his arms and fixes Zoroaster with his stare, letting the conversation sink in. “Are you…? Is it because it's Riario?” he changes tactics at the last minute.

“Fuck, Nico, I never was jealous when he jumped into bed with someone before,” Zo huffs frustratedly. “It must be because it’s Count fucking Riario!” He agitatedly jumps up and the chair topples over. He starts to pace in the tiny space, “I… I guess maybe because he pays so much attention to him. With the others he was always still himself. His mind was flitting around and jumped from one new experience or discovery to the next.” _Needing me to talk it through._ “With that man he’s just…It’s like he’s absorbing Leo’s whole attention. He only has eyes, ears…” _his cock “_ everything, for the count…” he suddenly trails off, remembering too late that Nico, too, was very fond of the Roman. 

Nico swallows. “I… The count has that effect,” he says a little sheepishly, thinking how he himself had become almost obsessed with the man. “He's…” He raises his eyes to meet Zo's, arguing with himself for a moment whether he should defend someone who is probably screwing someone else at that very moment. “He's so much like the maestro,” he admits in the end, holding his hand up to silence Zo, whose mouth opens in indignation. “I know what you're going to say, he could not be _less_ like the maestro. But you're wrong. You didn't spend weeks in Riario's company, watching him, learning from him. His obsession is God, not science, but his passion is the same.” _Hell, that I do know!_ “And you know Leo can be impossible at times too, treating us like shit,” he points out the other's flaws. “When he sees right through us, ordering us around like we're his errand boys,” he uses the count's terminology. “It's just how he is, but you would not have him any other way. You forgive him his poor manners and bad temper in an instant when he reveals yet another great idea.”

“Because I….” _love him._ Zo stops mid sentence as the realisation hits him in the gut like an unexpected blow during hand to hand combat. He had never seen their relationship in that way. _Isn’t love a romantic feeling? Moon and stars and flowers and all that?_ He raises his eyes helplessly towards Nico, standing stock still, like in shock. “I love him,” he croaks.

“You what?!” Nico jumps up too now, sending another chair crashing to the floor. “Then why are you playing goddamn cards with me? Why aren't you telling Leo that?!”

“I… it just came to me,” Zo grasps Nico by the shoulders. “I mean I knew I loved him before but not like _that!_ I mean, I didn’t think it was like that. But I feel like Riario is taking something very precious away from me.” Zoroaster bites his tongue, not used to talk about his feelings. It’s too raw. It hurts too much. He sighs, letting go of the young man. “But you’re probably righ. To Leo I;m just his errand boy. He’d probably laugh in my face if I’d told him how I really feel about him.” Zo shakes his head, “I can’t. It would just ruin our friendship.”

“You're an idiot,” Nico blurts out, realising how much things have changed between him and Zoroaster also. For the first time in his life he feels like he has some advice to offer the man who had always looked out for him. He takes the pack of cards and pulls out the King of Hearts, throwing it on the table in front of Zo. “Perhaps Leonardo doesn't feel the same way, but don't you think he has a right to know how you feel?” _Shit, am I just saying that because maybe, just maybe, that might remove the competition for Count Riario?_ a thought flits through his head, but he pushes it away.

“You want to know how I went from hating Girolamo to falling for him?” he pokes Zoroaster in the chest when the other doesn't make any move to action. “Because he could have just used me. He could have kept me chained and caged. He could have threatened me to help him get the Book. But instead he took the time to explain to me why he wanted to retrieve that relic. What is driving him, what makes him tick. He told me his darkest secrets, he told me about a woman he'd once loved and lost. He confided in me. And in the end I was not just a disposable prisoner to him. For he risked his own life to save mine. And suddenly all of the things he'd done to me, all the things I hated him for, they didn't matter anymore. Yes, Girolamo is a bastard and a dickhead and all those other things you call him. But he's also loyal to those he truly cares for and he is willing to die to reach his goals. I admire him for that. And I love him. I fucking love him, Zo. And you love Leo and we're both fools!”

Zo needs a moment to get his bearings after Nico's revelations. “The dickhead saved your life?” he tries to make light of the situation, very curious about what exactly had happened though. He picks up the King of Hearts and turns it over and over, his heart fluttering as it sinks in that he just admitted to himself and Nico that he's in love with their genius. _Should I really tell Leo about it?_ he wonders.

 _Our student has grown into a_ man, he also thinks, looking at the younger man fondly. He had first thought that when Nico had tricked the guards Riario-style to get them out of their labour work in the New World. This earnest discussion about earning the trust of an enemy takes him by surprise anew.

Nico chuckles, “Yes, the _dickhead_ saved my life. We got blown off course and ran aground. I was below deck when we hit the rocks and it knocked me clean off my feet. I must have hit my head as I fell and passed out. Next thing I remember is ice cold water splashing into my face. The whole belly of the ship had filled with water and it was pitch black. I tried to wade through to where I thought the exit was but I would never have made it if it wasn't for Girolamo. He came looking for me. Went back into the ship, into the water to find me. We had to dive in the end to get out. He got me out and dragged me ashore, making sure I was alright. That's when the natives captured us.” _I wonder what would have happened if they had not. Would Girolamo have agreed to let me sleep in his bed still?_

“Oh,” Zo is stunned. “That explains a lot.” He drags his hands through his hair again, remembering for the umpthiest time how the count had sentenced him and Lucretia to death. “He really must have a thing for you,” he contemplates aloud. “So ahem, are we going to interrupt the _apologising_ and claim our men?”

Nico snorts at that. “And how do you suggest we do that? They seem to have been glued together ever since the trials of the Vault. Do you have a magic trick up your sleeve?” He picks up the pack of cards again and pulls out the King of Spades. “In any case I think you've got a better chance with Leo than I do with the count. We're only days away from home now.”

Zo shakes his head, “Leo is obsessed with his latest toy, no chance. You know he likes to argue and Riario does too. He’s such a stimulant for his restless brain and his eager ...cock,” he presses out between clenched teeth.  “I am sorry, “ he adds as he sees Nico’s frustrated expression.

Nico bites his lip and shuffles his feet as he battles with himself. “Would you… I mean… Could we… Nevermind,” he loses his gut and turns to leave as his cheeks glow red.

“Could we what?” Zo gets up quickly to grab Nico and turn him back around. As he looks into the bright red face of the young man it dawns on him what these stammered half sentences might mean. “You want _us_ to fuck?” he asks incredously.

Nico chokes as Zo says it so directly, turning a possibly even brighter shade of red. “No. I mean, yes, but…” He swallows to gather his words. “I-I think I disappointed the maestro. Maybe I disappointed the count too,” he says lowering his gaze. “And Leo gives him what I didn't… Y-you've got more experience. Y-you know what men like.Perhaps you can teach me?” he asks awkwardly, biting his lip again. “To be a good lover?”

Zo’s eyes almost pop out at the request. “A good lover for His Grace?”

“Forget I said it,” Nico tries to backpaddle. “I should not have… It was stupid, I'm sorry.” _Shit! Well done Nico now you've not only lost the respect of Leonardo but Zo as well!_

Zoroaster trails his fingers through Nico's lush blonde curls, “No, I'm sorry. I forgot again that you feel different about the count now.” He steps closer and slides his other hand across his friend's arse. Needing a moment to adjust his thinking, that little Nico has grown up now. “What exactly is it you want me to teach you?”

Nico feels his heartbeat speed up at the touch, first his hair and then his backside. Even though he has no romantic feelings for Zoroaster, the sensual touch sparks a physical interest for sure. “I-I don't know,” he stutters. _This is weird!_ “M-maybe kiss…kiss me?”

The fortune teller chuckles at the shy request. He wonders if kissing with Nico would also spark nothing within him. But he takes Nico's face in his hands and concentrates on those full lips. He’s never liked kissing much with others. It always did go straight to the deed. With Leo it was different though... But he forbids himself to think about it since the man probably wasn't impressed with him either. “I am not sure if I'm the right teacher for that,” he says softly but starts to lick over and into Nico's mouth slowly, gently.

It is Nico's instinct to pull away. Kissing with Zo initially is like kissing his big brother. But he closes his eyes and forces himself to focus on the sensation. On that tongue curling into his mouth, of those surprisingly soft lips pressing against his own. He allows his own tongue to answer in kind and tentatively puts his arms around Zo's neck.

Zo greets Nico's tongue more eagerly now, more passionate, pulling the young man flush against him. His hands roaming possessively over Nico’s back and sides. He grins inwardly about the thought of being a teacher for sex as he rubs their groins together.

An involuntary moan escapes Nico and he realises with some embarrassment that he's got half hard already. “S-sorry,” he mutters, but then reminds himself that he had made this indecent proposition and that stuttering like a fool isn't going to impress Zo. _Think of it as an assignment!_ he reprimands himself. _You've always been an exemplary student, now show Zo that you mean to impress!_ And so he too lets his hands slide down onto Zoroaster’s backside, grinding up against him.

“Hmmm, eager…” the teacher gasps, “I like that a lot.” He slowly pulls Nico's shirt out of his trousers, his hands exploring the soft skin beneath it. _Almost like a woman's_ , he thinks as he starts to shower the revealed chest with tiny kisses. The unwanted thought of i _s Leo doing that to Riario right now_ enters his brain as he misses that fine chest hair of his other best friend.

Nico feels Zo's sudden tension and so he grabs his face, bending Zo down a little and kissing him deeply this time, taking away his own anxiety as much as Zo's with this distraction. When he breaks that passionate kiss breathlessly he pants, “Not here. Let's go to my cabin. If-if you still want to…”

“Alright,” Zoroaster gasps, taken completely by surprise by Nico’s determined and purposeful action. His cock swelling rapidly now. “You're hot,” he whispers in the young man’s ear as he playfully slaps his arse when they make their way across the ship.

Suddenly the whole idiotic and frankly ludicrous situation feels playfully exciting to Nico. It no longer feels like they are doing something utterly unacceptable that could not possibly come to anything good. Rather it feels like the good old days of going on an exciting adventure with his best friend, either at the maestro’s bidding or just for the hell of it whilst Da Vinci is too preoccupied with Lorenzo to pay them any attention. Something that teeters on the edge of utter foolishness but that is too much fun to care about the implications. “Yes I'm hot,” Nico purrs playfully as he kicks open the door and drags Zo inside. He throws a glance over his shoulder to check if there's any sign of the love birds but they are nowhere to be seen. “You make me hot,” he grins as he shuts the door behind him and pulls open the rest of his shirt, looking at Zoroaster temptingly from under his long lashes.

Zo licks his lips and slowly opens the laces of his trousers, loosening them, showing Nico part of his interest. “You want to play, boy?” he asks in a sultry voice, “show me yours then. ” He palms his still covered dick.

“Who are you calling _boy_ ,” Nico grins, raising his chin to his tall friend. “I'll show you I'm a boy no more!” He yanks at the cords of his own trousers, using his put-on bravado to share his own offering with his unexpected playmate.

Zo eyes the revealed sword. “That's an impressive weapon,” he states, pulling out his cock fully, fisting it. “You want to compare who can last longer?” he smirks, setting a leisurely pace.

“Last longer …” Nico swallows as he looks at Zo's hand mesmerizingly. _He's big,_ he thinks to himself. He tentatively takes his own member in hand, but then looks up at Zo, blushing. “I don't know how I control _that_...” The few times he had lain with the count there has been little art to their mating. It just happened as it happened. His most extravagant contribution had been given the Roman oral pleasure. And masturbating was about getting off, not about holding back. He sure has no idea how to meet Zo's challenge with any conviction.

“You don't know how?” Zo smiles and sits on Nico's cot, waving the handsome man over. “We should have experimented with that some time ago.” He tentatively takes Nico's cock into his fist as he sits down beside him and wraps the slender fingers of the young man around his own manhood. “Call it yet another experiment of the reactions of the human male body,” he tries to imitate Leonardo's lecturing voice and mannerism.

Nico chuckles a little nervously.  Zo's hand on his manhood feels surprisingly good and he marvels at the feeling of the other's dick in his hands; hot and heavy. “Alright,” he grins sheepishly, “ _maestro_.” Curiosity gets the better of him as he asks, “Is that how you and Leo first did it? Experiments of the male body?”

Zo laughs, as the big eyes of a very curious, very young Leo appear before his inner eye. They were wet after their bath in the river, it was sunny and the to be scientist had started to trail his fingertips all over his body and after a while replaced them with his lips. The memory makes him grow into Nico's fist and he starts to pump the other's dick a little quicker, “Kind of, yes,” Zo inhales deeply. “I was his very willing object.”

Nico smiles, but decides to drop further questions for now as he doesn't want the other to get too lost in his dreams of Da Vinci, even though for the first time since he got to know Zoroaster and Leonardo he's kind of curious about their special relationship.

He leans back just a little and spreads his legs, kicking off the trousers that are dangling around his ankles. He groans softly as Zo's practised hand lets his whole body pulse. He hopes that he offers the other similarly pleasurable stimulation, listening to Zo's quickening breath, the soft groans that flow through it. “Nice,” he grunts, bucking his hips up. “Very nice.”

“Hmm, you’ve got some skill, pupil,” Zo sighs, enjoying the unfamiliar sensation of Nico’s unpracticed hand at his privates. He gets curious himself now, his brain just starts to get a bit foggy. “With Riario...what...did you... learn?” he wants to ask more directly but knows that that is none of his business. He lets his thumb circle around Nico’s cock head, coaxing pearls of precome out of it.

The younger man takes a deep breath as a shiver runs through his cock into his groin. _Make it last!_ he reminds himself as he does not want to look like an idiot and lose it already. _Just… relax! Focus on the question!_ He feels the build up subside a little at that and clears his throat whilst his hand renews his effort. “He ehm… he put his fingers… with some oil… Before he…” his cheeks are so red now as he shares these secrets with Zo that Nico feels his head might burst. _Perhaps that's God’s punishment,_ he thinks briefly. “Before he took me. On the Captain’s table,” he almost whispers in embarrassment. And yet talking about it, thinking about how he and the count had answered that build up sexual tension so spectacularly, makes his cock tremble and weep.

“On...The...table…” Zo repeats breathlessly, bucking into Nico's fist now, remembering another incident on Leo's large table amongst pots of paint, tools and medical instruments. It wasn't that long ago, right after he had to pretend he was his friend in that stinky prison cell. But Leo rewarded him richly, passionately.

“Did...you like it?” Firmer strokes accompany the question. “Do you,” he licks his lips, turning a bit on his side to lean over Nico, looking at him intently, “want to learn more about that?”

Nico is lost now to the game of maestro and pupil. Zo's administrations are definitely no longer just educational. He leans into him more and feels the other's hot breath against his neck. “I… yes,” he moans softly, rubbing his thigh and the side of his buttock against Zo's, begging him silently as his cock begins to ache. “I would… You… you are well equipped… maestro Zoroaster,” he compliments as he eyes that impressive meaty sword nestled into all that dark curly hair with nervous anticipation.

 _Maestro Zoroaster. Now that has a very nice ring to it._ Zo rubs himself against the angelic body. So different to Leo's. He trails his fingertips upwards along the insides of Nico's thighs. “So soft,” he mutters, kissing the other's collar bone while finding his goal, probing gently between those round buttocks with his middle finger.

“Oh… oh fuck yes,” Nico is completely absorbed by his arousal now, no longer feeling too shy to be doing this with Zo. It feels good. He trusts this man more than anyone else on the planet. It feels comfortable and safe to experiment. He doesn't feel the pressure that he's felt with Leo or Girolamo, to impress, to live up to their expectations. It doesn't really matter if Zo thinks he's a good lover or a poor one because at the end of the day it's a one off.

He pulls Zo on top of him as he lets himself flop back onto the bed, letting go now of the other's dick. He spreads his legs wider. “In me. Please, Zo, finger me. I need to feel you,” he hisses into his friend’s hot mouth.

“Oh fuck,” Zo mutters at the pleading. Nico is very pliant under his ministrations and he likes that a lot. He circles his finger around that inviting rose with more and more pressure until it gives and he starts to slide in and out slowly, moving further into that delicious body inch by inch. He envelopes Nico’s proud shaft with his other hand and works him from the inside and the outside now, studying his face, marvelling in the needy noises he exerts from his bed partner. His own cock is leaking but he knows he can hold onto it a lot longer. With Leo one clearly practices stamina.

“Zo!” Nico mewls desperately. The double stimulation is too much to bear. “I'm going to… Please!”

Zo grabs the base of that heavily leaking cock and squeezes, to stave off the eager young man's climax. “Not yet sweet Nico,” he gasps against swollen lips, “you want to learn to impress and hold off,” Zo winks.

The blond man squeaks as he's grabbed so harshly. The sharp pinch does the trick though and his bubbling orgasm instantly subsides. He pushes himself up on his elbows and blinks at Zo. “T-thanks.” He eyes his friend's impressive cock with slightly more clarity now. “The count used sperm oil,” he says, feeling a little trepidation. “To make it easier. He's the only man that I've had. And you're bigger than he is…” he admits in his nervousness.

Zo grins at the statement that is caressing his pride. _I am better equipped than Count Riario! Will Leo appreciate that?_ He rubs his cock head softly over Nico's pucker, caressing that rose gently, stimulatingly. The muscle reacts to him with pleasant little tremors. “Hmmm, you really enjoy that,” Zo mutters as he starts to lube himself up, studying his pupil.

“Yes, yes!” Nico mewls and wriggles. Before Riario had taken his virginity he had only dreamt of these forbidden pleasures. Now he begs for it, his whole body vibrating with desire to be taken again, to be filled in that most intimate place. “Zo, I want it so bad!”

Zo chuckles appreciatively, “Eager pupil.” He’s turned on by Nico's willingness to give himself over. _I am going to show you a really nice time with my larger weapon._ Again he slides his now lubricated cock across Nico's entry several delicious times, making his sword grow again, ready for battle.

“Going to give you the best lesson ever,” he groans as he presses in carefully. “Hmmm, fucking tight!”

“Holy Mother of God!” Nico curses as he is stretched wide beyond belief. _No wonder the maestro has kept Zo close to his bedstead even if others occupied it._ He forces himself to breath through the pressure until his body accepts the intrusion. “Shit Zo, you're huge!” he pants.

“Relax, sweet Nico,” Zoroaster wraps his fingers around the other's cock again, “you will appreciate that in a moment.” He smiles fondly and cradles his balls too, gently rolling them as he stays where he is, allowing Nico's body to adjust.

The caring words and the fantastic touches to his privates help Nico soften those internal muscles and suddenly his body welcomes his friend in. He sighs and groans as their groins shift together, filling him with that incredible sword. He wraps his legs around Zo to pull him in fully.

Zo curses loudly as Nico's body gives in to him. He hadn't expected it so quickly and the perfect friction to his cock makes him swear very colourfully as the pleasure envelopes him. “That's so fucking fantastic, Nico,” he grins as he slowly starts to move, “you're a natural!”

Nico smiles at the praise. He knows Zo would tell him straight if he was no good and so the genuine compliment fills him with confidence. He wraps his arms around Zo's neck and crashes their lips together as he meets the other's thrusts with the rolling of his hips.

The kiss is fierce now, completely different than the first. Zoroaster loves Nico’s boldness and how he forgets all his shyness, showing him his passion. His cock is throbbing in the heat of that almost virgin channel, his thrusts getting quicker, more powerful.

“Is it nice for you?” he gasps into Nico’s ear.

“Yes! Nnngh! Zo! Oh fuck!” Nico keens. Zo's breath in his ear, against his neck, feels just as erotic and arousing as his hands roaming his skin, the Jew's hairy chest scraping his own smooth one. No, this isn't like how it was with Girolamo. His feelings towards Zo haven't suddenly turned to match the crush he has on the handsome Roman lord. But hell, it sure feels amazing! And his balls feel close to bursting as he's fucked so thoroughly. “I want to come…” he pants.

“Come on my cock then, sweet Nico,” Zo encourages breathlessly. Nico's pale skin is all flushed red and is getting a deeper shade of it as the fortune teller works his prostate with a very precise rhythm of forceful inwards strokes.

The dirty command alone makes Nico spill his seed almost instantly. He doesn't even have to help himself over the edge; Zo knows exactly how to angle his penetration to make him come untouched, throbbing and pulsing his internal muscles around that impressive manhood.

As Zo watches the streaks of thick semen erupt out of that swollen shaft, creaming Nico's youthful chest, his defenses crumble and he starts to fly earnestly towards his own climax, breathing harshly into the mouth of the man beneath him.

“Come, Zo!” Nico pleads breathlessly as he shudders underneath him. “I want… your seed… in me.” He blushes as the words come out, but he can see they have the desired effect when Zo’s eyes cloud over in bliss.

“Fckfckfuck!” Zo yells as these words shoot right to the tip of his weapon and he fires. His whole load heats Nico up even more from the inside and fills that tight channel so everything is very slippery now. Zo can't get enough of that. He pumps into it until he has nothing more to give and is flopping on top of his student, his breath ragged.

Nico lies very still underneath his friend as he tries to catch his breath too. His heart threatens to jump out of his chest as it's beating so wildly. The realisation of having just had the most fantastic mind-blowing sex with his best friend and surrogate brother is too much to comprehend just yet.

After a few moments of silence though, he whispers, “Did you… like it?”

Zo chuckles against Nico's neck. “I just shot my full load into you. I think that's a pretty good indication that I liked it a lot,” he says hoarsely, rubbing their bellies together, smearing the young man’s release between them.

Nico smiles and relaxes, feeling happy and content. “‘Twas pretty damn amazing,” he grins as he feels the other beginning to slip from him. “Thank you for the lesson.”

“It was a pleasure,” Zo leans up so he can look at the handsome blonde man. “I didn't know being a teacher could be so arousing,” he laughs warmly.

Nico laughs too. He's grateful that things don't feel awkward between them after that encounter. Rather he feels an even deeper affection for Zoroaster; not in any romantic way but a friendship that runs as deep as that.

He reaches for his shirt as Zo slowly rolls off him. “I guess we'd best freshen up and go see if the others have finished their _quarrels_ yet,” he suggests. He looks at Zo, who looks satisfied and chilled for the first time in what seems like ever since they left Florence. “Will you tell the maestro what we did?” he asks.

Zo looks up at Nico, stretching leisurely, answering with a counter question, “Will you?”

Nico thinks about this for a moment, but then shakes his head. “I think we're allowed to have a secret of our own for once,” he grins.

“Right you are,” Zo smirks back, getting up, looking for something to wipe the semen off his stomach. It feels rather empowering to have taken something that the count desires. Like the playing field has been levelled a little. He wonders if he will have the guts to confess his true feelings to Leo though. Perhaps once they're back ashore and Leo's Roman suitor has returned to his daddy… His grin widens even further at that.


	9. Chapter 9

Leonardo listens to Riario's slowing heartbeat with his ear pressed onto his lover's chest. They both know this was their last time together. They'll both go back to their cities. Cities that are enemies. Go back to their very own lives. He can't wait to explore the golden head further with the special tools he’s got at home. Can't wait to show it to Andrea, tell him about all his experiences in the New World. All but one.

“I’ll miss our debates,” the artist says as he looks up, trying to peer beneath Riario's fringe.

The count smirks, but his features have an unusual grimness to it that overshadows the normal sarcasm that circles his lips. “You'll miss trying to convince me of your righteousness,” he says though, trying to keep the upper hand. But despite the usual sharpness of his tongue, his sleek fingers caress Da Vinci's long mane with a loving tenderness that reveals his weakness.

The engineer chuckles at that, “Si, il mio Capitano,” _I’ll miss that indeed._ He traces Riario's markant features with his finger tips as if to remember them for forever. He notices the slightly different expression, “What's on your mind?” he asks very uncharacteristically.

Girolamo takes in a long slow breath before he answers that question. “I wonder why God has not yet smit me down for losing my soul to you,” he says half earnestly. And then even softer, “I wonder what I will find in Rome on my return. You have your new adventure to occupy your mind…” he trails off. _And I? What will keep me from longing for_ this _when I return? Will there be forgiveness? And if so, will it still be enough?_  

“I offered you to come with us,” Leonardo's heart hurts at the unusual softness in the normally sarcastic count's voice. “Work with me on the head…” he too trails off, wondering how that would go down with Verrocchio and Zo. He keeps staring intently into those expressive eyes.

“As my offer for you to come to Rome still stands, Leonardo,” the Roman counters, knowing that Da Vinci is as unlikely to change his mind on the subject as he is. 

Leo chuckles, “Maybe...I will hold you to that,” He leans in for another kiss, savouring his once enemy's taste. “I visited the New World, why shouldn't I visit Rome?”

Girolamo tilts his head a little, studying his sin carefully. “I shall look forward to it,” he smiles, although already his head is screaming at him how foolish that would be. He studies the artist for a long moment. How his eyes flit when he wants to convince him to come with him still and battles between his pride and his desires. But there is more. There is a deeper anxiety there as the ship continues to plough its path through the waves towards land. “What do you fear, Leonardo?” he probes into the other man's distracted thoughts as he had done with his.

Da Vinci blinks about the unexpected question and thinks for a bit, drawing circles on Riario's smooth chest. “Loosing my hands,” he admits after a moment to his what he thinks must surely be his worst fear, remembering all too clearly when his right hand was damaged so badly by his father's goons.

Riario laughs softly at Da Vinci's confession. “No,” he shakes his head. “A genius like you,” he says as he takes his lover's hand and kisses the palms of each in turn, “would not let the loss of your hands hold you back. You would paint with your feet if needed,” he praises the man he admires so foolishly. “You would sculpt your designs with your mouth. Or even have others,” he caresses his bearded jaw, “execute your ideas under your watchful eye. No, it is not your hands you fear losing. Try again,” he challenges his ally to this puzzle.

Leonardo raises his eyebrows at the tenderness and at how well Riario knows him. But he tries again. “I’d say losing my mind would be the worst but I wouldn't notice so that's not it either…” he frowns in concentration, wondering what the count is hinting at. “That no one ever believes me, that I can't convince people about my ideas.” He says very slowly after a while, well aware that that was exactly what he couldn't do with Riario, regarding the sun system.

The Roman lord knows that the engineer means him in person as much as humanity as a whole, but again he shakes his head. “You rise above the blindness of men. It will never stop you from executing your inventions. The world may not be ready for your ideas, Da Vinci, not yet. But that will not stop you. You are as convinced of your visions, your path, as a monk during Lent.”

The artist sits up cross legged now, studying the man he has bedded almost each day and night on this journey, rubbing his thigh absentmindedly. _Does he know my deepest fear? Does he know that which not even I am sure about? Did I dream talking to my old self or was that a feverish vision from snake poison?_ “I...I’m glad you see it that way,” he murmurs hesitantly, “I…” he scratches his nose nervously, “I think I fear to be forgotten,” he says very softly under his breath, staring at the man he learned to trust over the last few months.

“Si,” Riario finally seems satisfied with Leonardo's answer. “You fear _nothing_. You fear that you will die without having left your mark. And if an heir and if not heaven, what is there for you after death, but the legacy of your name.”

Leonardo inhales sharply, “Indeed.” He lies down beside his lover again, feeling calmer now that he’s found the answer to Riario’s riddle. “And you?” _I should know that too. He fears the loss of his faith. He’d be lost without it._

“The same as you,” the count mumbles as he strokes his fingers through Leonardo's tangled hair again. “Eternity without glory.” He presses his lips into that wild mop, trying to imprint the feel and smell of having Leonardo da Vinci pressed against him into his mind forever. “And that is why you cannot follow me to Rome and I cannot follow you to Florence. For we would be each other's undoing.”

Da Vinci mulls this over in his head for a while. He knows that the count is right. That the world isn't ready for science and faith living side by side in harmony - let alone in the form of two men in … _love_. He swallows the lump that is building in his throat. “I wish you would see the world as I see it. But I will not be your undoing,” he finally answers.

 _Perhaps you already are,_ Riario thinks but he keeps the thought to himself.

+++

Nico stares at the shoreline with mixed emotions. It's good to be home. He misses Florence and Vanessa and Andrea. He misses eating good food and drinking decent wine. He misses strolling down the Via Por Santa Maria with Zo, haggling with the vendors and stuffing their faces with fresh dates. And yet every minute that takes them closer to all those things also takes him away from something.

Zo steps beside Nico, ruffling his hair, “Excited to finally be home again?” He can't suppress his own joy about that fact, a broad grin spreading across his features.

“Yes,” Nico says smiling at the amicable gesture. “I think so,” he adds a little unsurely though.

Zo throws his arm over his friend's shoulder, whispering into his ear, “I’m sure there will be lots of distractions to let you forget Count Riario.” He winks good naturedly.

Nico sighs, rolling his eyes a little. “The same distractions you hope will help the maestro forget him?” he throws back.

 _Fuck._ “Damn Nico _._ That was a perfect hit in the gut,” Zo groans, trying to make it sound like a joke. Indeed he hopes that their home with all of Leo's precious tools will make him kind of forget Riario. _But they’ve met there_ before, the other part of his brain disagrees and he spits angrily into the quiet water.

“Sorry,” Nico looks at his friend with sympathy. “He probably will though,” he says, unsure who he's trying to convince here. “You know with Leo out of sight quickly means out of mind when something more exciting comes along.” He doesn't mean it nastily. It's true, the maestro’s interests are varied and wide and he rarely finishes one before another pulls at him. But there is still a little bit of spite underlining his words as he has hardly seen either his maestro or the count these last few days and nights to the point where he was beginning to worry that they had killed each other over one of their disagreements. 

Now it is Zo who sighs, “I wonder if it's going to be back to normal again…” _Fetch me this, get me that..._ his thoughts trail off, raking through his unruly curls. “I am looking forward to meeting Signora Donati,” he decides to push those thoughts about being in love with Leo to the back of his head since he's been thin air for him during the last few weeks.

“Well well, my dear cousin is indeed still alive then.” The count steps closer to the two men, having overheard that last sentence. “Should I take credit for this curious interest that you have developed in her?” Zo turns around and attempts to hit the count right on the cheek with his fist. The sudden memory of Lucretia and their joint struggle of despair, under water, for air and life, lets his suppressed anger flare instantly. But the count has sufficiently recovered that his reflexes outmanoeuvre Da Vinci's brute. “I see that I've touched quite a nerve,” he smirks as he goes to stand on Nico's other side. “Are you sure you can handle Lucretia?”

“Of course I’m sure,” Zo fumes even more now since he didn’t connect with the other’s face. “And I’m sure she’d love to hit you just as much as I do,” he hisses at the count.

 

“We have a ... challenging relationship,” Riario purses his lips briefly as he thinks about his cousin. “But it's not as you think,” he throws Zo something to chew on before he puts his arm around Nico and turns him slightly away from the third man. “We are almost back in Italy,” he observes as he joins Nico's gaze at the approaching shoreline.

Nico feels a shiver go through him at the formerly familiar gesture. After not having Riario by his side for what seems a very long time, he savours the moment of attention. “Si,” is all he’s able to get out even though there are so many thoughts in his head he cannot say with Zo standing beside them.

Zo frowns at both, the strange comment about Lucretia and the kind of possessive gesture. He decides to leave these two alone, swallowing his anger, climbing under deck to get his few belongings.

“I regret,” Riario clears his throat, happy that the mongrel has retreated, “that I did not spend more time with you these past few days.” Now that the end of their journey lies clear on the horizon his regret is real and he feels torn in many of his decisions. It's an odd feeling and not one he's very familiar with. It unsettles him to not have an unwavering goal in mind nor a steadfast belief in what is right any longer.

Nico’s heart starts hammering at these words. He hesitantly looks at the count’s profile, longing to touch it but not daring. “I regret that too,” he stammers. _But you were preoccupied with someone else… Someone more important…_

“You were kind to me,” the count says with an uncharacteristic softness to it. “And I repaid you poorly.” He turns to Nico and gives him a half smile, gently caressing his soft boyish face with the back of his fingers.

The gentle, unexpected touch instantly kindles Nico’s arousal. He’d been longing for the older man alone in his bed many nights. He feels an unwanted blush creep up into his cheeks. “This journey took a toll with all of us,” the young man tries to sound wise and forgiving, holding the count’s gaze, wondering when the other man of Riario’s desire will appear and make him feel like he doesn’t exist yet again.

“I have …” Girolamo begins, but then closes his mouth again, hesitant to give voice to what has been on his mind for days. Instead he just squeezes the other's shoulder and gives him a brief but warm smile. “We too should get ready to disembark,” he releases his grip and walks away with what's now just a slight limp.

Nico looks after the limping man who had turned from his enemy, to his teacher, to his lover on this journey. He suddenly can't bear the thought to let him go and he stands there torn, rooted to the spot, his thoughts whirling.

+++

Leonardo excitedly jumps onto the pier of Livorno, pressing his precious treasure against his chest. He can't wait to show it to his maestro and completely forgets about the others that follow behind. Maybe he can show it to Lorenzo too, convincing him that it makes sense to fund his work in some way.

Count Riario overlooks the harbour with a little more apprehension. He's not sure that stepping onto Italian soil does not fill him with more dread than the unknown sands of the New World had. At least he had a purpose then. A clear goal. Now he feels like his entire purpose has been called into question. Where he had gone after the relic to find salvation, he has returned empty handed and with a sense of loss that he's never felt before.

He takes a slow breath though and slides his mask back into place. _You are Lord Girolamo Riario. Captain General of the Holy Roman Church!_ he reminds himself as he straightens his back. He looks to Nico, smiling faintly. “Welcome home.”

Nico smiles back a little guardedly. “Welcome home yourself.“ He certainly likes to be on Count Riario's side now and not against him, being hunted by him to give away his friend's secrets.

Zo steps onto the cobblestones after the others, observing all three. Leo with his never fading enthusiasm, running already ahead of them. Riario and Nico forgetting to walk because they keep looking at each other. Their body language way too obvious for him to not be caught as sodomites. But maybe that is just his imagination.

His heart jumps for joy though as he hears his familiar mother tongue again in various yelling voices and dialects; the best sign of an active market place. His very own home. Not Florence yet, but close enough.

“Zo! Are you coming or what?” Leo gestures wildly, standing at a bird stall. Zoroaster shakes his head to himself and grins. _Welcome back home!_

_+++_

Nico is surprised that the maestro had not only agreed to spend the night in Livorno before travelling on to Florence, but that he had actually managed to convince Count Riario to stay in the tavern with them before they would part ways the next day. It's odd to see the Roman man sat at a table with the three of them now, even though they had just spent months together in a space not much bigger than this public house.

Nico watches the count from under his long fringe. He does not partake in their slightly rowdy game of dice - of course not - but he is sipping the wine that Leonardo had purchased for them. On the one hand Nico can see the old Riario has already begun to return now that they are back in Italy. And yet something has changed that his iron mask cannot hide so easily. The young Florentine cannot put his finger on it exactly, but somehow the count seems less sure of himself. Perhaps it's the environment that is unsettling the pious man, full of boisterous sailors and dubious ladies. But Nico thinks there is something more fundamental troubling the count.

“Your Grace,” he jumps to his feet when the count suddenly gets up. He's not even sure why he's fallen back into calling him that but somehow it feels right. “Can ... can I get you some more wine?” Already he has that sinking feeling deep in his stomach at the realisation that this may be the last time that they are sat together and he knows he's desperately trying to hold on to the illusion.

But Riario moves his hand dismissively, waving for Nico to sit back down. “I must bid you goodnight …, companions,” he says with more earnest than his usual sharp address. “I have a longer journey ahead of me still. I shall say my farewells now as I intend to leave before dawn break.”

Leonardo looks up at that. It’s like the last sentence has been spoken louder and it weaves it’s way through the onslaught of impressions that got his brain buzzing. _Leave? Of course, leave!_ He gets up too, “W-we need to leave early too. Can I not convince you t-to another glass of wine?” his anxiety over this pending parture makes him tongue stumble over his words.

Riario cocks his head at Leonardo, the man he had gotten to know better than anyone else and yet who still is a complete mystery to him. “Goodbye, Leonardo Da Vinci,” he answers formally to seal his intention. He holds out his hand and clasps the other's arm but holds him at length. “May you find your glory.”

Leonardo’s heart hurts at the polite farewell. He holds onto Riario’s forearm just that moment longer, tries to meet his gaze in the dim light of the tavern. They’d exchanged declarations of love after all and now he has to let that remarkable man just go like that? He smiles faintly at the other’s words, “I’m sure our ways will cross again so I can tell you how that goes,” he says more lightly than he feels inside.

Against his better judgement Girolamo places his hand briefly on Leo's shoulder, squeezing slightly as he gives him a wink that says more than any words can at that moment.

He turns himself to Zo before he allows his stoicism to crumble too much though. “Give Lucretia my regards,” he smirks at the man who has not bothered to get up for him.

Zoroaster just nods slightly. He knows he’s the only one who’s glad that they are parting. Happy even as he longs to see only the back of the count when he walks away. _I’m sure she’s just as devastated as I am that he survived this journey. I wonder where she is though. If she’s still alive._ He empties his bottle of wine, studying Leo as he follows the count with his gaze. _Clearly no chance with Leo. What was I thinking?_ He sighs, grabbing for the dice and shaking the beaker verociously.

“Niccolo,” Girolamo croaks finally, turning to the blond young man that had been the key to his changed perspective on many things. He claps both his shoulders and looks deep into those bright eyes. “Look after yourself. Find the path that God has set out for you.” He wants to say more, but he realises that he's let the opportunity for a more frank conversation pass him by when he chose to lie in Da Vinci's bed during the last leg of their journey. And so he just smiles sadly. And then, without waiting for an answer, turns and walks briskly out of the tavern and towards the guest quarters.

Nico stands rooted to the spot. He knew this moment would come. And he had gotten to terms with the fact that Riario preferred his maestro over him. But why then the intense, almost hypnotic glare? The more personal message of goodbye then Da Vinci had received?

“God?” Zo sniggers and Nico elbows him in the ribs for the comment, sitting down again beside his friend.

Da Vinci stares at the closed door thoughtfully after Riario disappeared. _Did the wink mean we must meet up one last time? Can I bear that? We already said our good bye ... And what did the almost intimate goodbye for Nico mean?_ He had stolen the count from him during the last weeks on the ship after all and yet there still seems to be something between those two that he would rather deny.

He looks from Zo to Nico and back, gesturing at the wench to bring more wine.“Who's winning?” he asks way too cheerfully. The world as he knew it before this journey seems to stand upside down and he does not know anymore which side he prefers to be up.


	10. Finale

Leo stares at the cobwebs that decorate the ceiling. He knows he's not going to sleep a wink as his brain churns over all of the new discoveries and adventures of the past few months. He cannot decide what thrills him the most - the discovery of a new part of the world and all its secrets, the realisation that the sun is the centre of the universe, his mother's voice inside the golden head. Each too great to comprehend in its own right.

And on top of it all Count Riario continues to haunt his mind. He had grown used to falling asleep in the Roman’s arms, listening to his steady heartbeat and calming breath...

They cannot part like this, he suddenly thinks. He must give it one more try, to convince his stubborn adversary to come with him to Florence. He just cannot let go that easily. And so he carefully slides himself from under the thin blanket and places his bare feet onto the creaking floorboards, trying not to wake Zo as he creeps towards the door.

+++

The count grins to himself as the knock on his door comes. He had expected it. He knew that Da Vinci would not just settle for a formal handshake as a goodbye, even though they had already said their farewells in more intimate ways on the ship.

It's reckless of course for the other man to show up at his room like that. And yet before his head can put a stop to it his tongue issues a, “Come in.”

His visitor outside the door takes a deep breath and enters at the invitation, making sure he closes the door firmly behind him. He can't help the grin that flits over his features as he sees Riario resting on the bed. His formal attire gone, the Bible in his hands.

He clears his throat awkwardly before starting to speak.

+++

“Leo…” Zo croaks as he hears that his companion is getting up. _Now or never_ he thinks.  “I am in love with you.”

The genius freezes with his hand on the door handle. He had thought Zo to be asleep and had hoped to sneak out unnoticed. Now he thinks he must surely be the one who is still asleep.

He slowly turns to look at his best friend, blinking hard. “Zo?”

“I know you're on your way to see _him_ ,” Zo says awkwardly, sitting up as he looks at the man he now realises is so much more to him than the best friend he's ever had. “And if that's what you really want, then I won't  stop you,” he nervously drags his hand through his hair. “But before you do, I just wanted you to know. I _need_ you to know, how I feel …” He isn't one to blush but he can almost feel his cheeks colour at the pouring out of his raw feelings for his friend like that.

Leo opens his mouth and then closes it again. His hand slips off the handle though and he takes a step back into the room. “I…” He rubs his beard and then his face. “You… love me…” It isn't so much a question. Because in his heart of hearts he has no doubt it's the truth.

Zoroaster scrambles out of bed quickly, “I...erm...You’re the one I want to be with. Not Lucretia Donati.” _Maybe the two of you… “_ No matter how often you order me around to fetch impossible things for you. No matter how often I have to run from the guards or get into fights with them. Because it is fun, because it is for and with you. Because it gives me a goal in life and the thrill of surviving. And fuck Leo,” the fortune teller gestures wildly with his arms, “you’re the best lay I’ve ever had.”

Leo, for the first time in his life, is speechless. He doesn't know whether to laugh or to cry or neither or both. “T-thanks,” he stutters stupidly. “I …” He bites his lip, trying to digest all of that praise, all of these heartfelt words from the man who has been closer to him than anyone else. _Why didn't I see that before?_ But then, _but I did. I have always known._

Zo is relieved that Leo’s hand isn’t on the door handle anymore. He knows that talking about feelings isn’t their strength _at all!_ It’s way easier to just drag his friend into bed with him when he gives the right signals. This is way different though. It’s not about fucking. It’s about spending their whole life together. It’s about his fight of not losing Leonardo da Vinci to Count Riario. It was hard enough on the ship _knowing_ they were not only _discussing_ with words.

“It’s alright, if you don’t…”

 “No! I mean…” _Do I?_ Leonardo takes another step forward. He looks at Zo; looks at him as if this is the first time he sets eyes on him. A forgotten memory bubbles up in his mind's eye. Of laughing on the river bank in the height of summer. Far enough away from prying eyes. Of awkward kisses. Of their wet bodies wrestling in the grass. Of getting aroused and feeling arousal press against him in turn. “I love you too,” he finds himself whispering as he remembers Zo being the first guy to ever have been inside of him. “I always have.” He wraps his arms around Zo and slowly presses his lips against the other's, hesitantly as if it's their first time all over again.

Zo’s heart suddenly jumps into his throat as he hears these words back against hope of all hopes. Leo's embrace is so special, his soft kiss so tender as if they've never kissed before.

They have not; not like this.

+++

“Niccolo.” Count Riario closes his Bible as he looks up at his unexpected visitor with pleasant surprise. He considers for a moment whether to put on his air of formality again, but then decides against it, resting back casually again, curious to see what has brought the boy to his room.

“I want to go with you. I want to study Rome. I want to be your pupil if you let me,” Nico says determinedly.

Girolamo opens his mouth to argue. They've had this conversation before and before he had been quite clear that it is not an option. Now though, now that they are about to go their separate ways, his resolve wavers. “And what does Da Vinci say about that?” he places the responsibility for the decision in someone else's hands.

“The maestro doesn't know about it yet,” Nico  lets his eyes slide over the man he grew to respect – and desire - so much. “I'm my own free man. I can do what I want,” he lifts his chin to underline his point of view.

The count raises his eyebrows at that rebellious statement but smiles. He pats the bed beside him. “Why? Why do you want to go to Rome? What do you hope to gain from my tutelage?”

“I’d like to compare science with the beliefs of the Church and study if it would be possible for the two to exist side by side.” Nico lays out his plans, showing Riario that he's thought about it lots and that he's not going to follow him around like a love sick puppy. “I speak Latin as you know. I would like to learn more abotu the politics of the papal states and the political alliances between them. I am no artist. And whilst I have learned a great deal from my brilliant maestro, my scholarship there is wasted. You said once that I stand in his shadow. Perhaps you are right. Then, give me a chance to step out of it, Girolamo.“ _Please_ , he bites his lip, sitting down beside the man of the Church, having missed their closeness for too long.

Riario lets Nico‘s rhethoric sink in. He's impressed by his convincing argument and by the fevor of his speech. Impressed by how the young man beside him has lost none of his passion and yet has gained maturity.

His own feelings have changed too, he realises. Whereas previously he saw danger in such an arrangement, now he can see opportunity. If Da Vinci will not join forces with him, perhaps his apprentice is a more than acceptable substitute.

“Perhaps,” he says cagily. He studies the young man up close. “You know that we cannot…” _be lovers_.

Nico looks at Riario, trying to make out his features in the almost dark. The one candle hides as much as it shows. He nods his head. He had thought about their relationship day and night. And he had come to the conclusion that he'd rather be with the pious man as a tutor than not at all.

Still, he hesitantly lies his hand on the other's thigh, “Maybe tonight?” he asks in a whisper, blinking from under his hair.

Girolamo follows the hand with his eyes, contemplating the proposal. He wonders which he is more concerned about, his reputation or his soul.

“I said my farewells to Da Vinci in private,” he says huskily. “So that we may not be tempted when get to Rome perhaps we should do the same …” He brushes Nico's hair back, allowing his fingers to caress the younger man's face.

 Riario mentioning Leonardo just now frustrates Nico a bit. But the fingertips on his skin make his whole body tingle in an instant and he brushes the thought aside, leaning his cheek into the other's palm, blinking his lashes and pressing down a bit stronger on that thigh muscle.

“Si, il mio conte,” he rasps.

+++

Zo slides his hands into his man's long locks, caressing his tongue with his.

 _Why haven't I told him this before?_ Leonardo thinks as he answers that deep but tender kiss in kind. _Because I was afraid? To lose more than I would gain?_ He wraps himself more firmly around Zoroaster as they stumble back towards Zo's bed, moaning softly into each other's mouth.

“Leo,” Zo whispers reverently, still not believing the the engineer declared his love for him in turn . He wants to make a difference to their normal rushed buddy fucking, so he takes his time in exploring this familiar, beloved body anew, inch by inch, breathing in the other's scent, smiling now and then as he looks up at Leonardo in the semi darkness.   

 _How had I forgotten how special you are?_ Leonardo sighs as Zo makes him feel like he's floating on petals. His affair with the count had been such a whirlwind of passions. He cannot deny that he loves the Roman too; his handsome adversary, ally and enigma. A very different sort of love. One that threatens to suffocate you as much as it energises. But Zo… Zo is his soulmate. As reliable as the beat of his own heart. This isn't about the thrill of the conquest. Zoroaster is home and comfort and feeling truly at ease.

“I love you.” He has to say it again as it feels so good to finally let his heart speak. His hands explore bronze skin over lean muscle as his friend and lover indulges him with kisses.

“Ti amo, Leonardo Da Vinci,” Zo breathes against Leo's neck, very close to his ear, then nuzzling his nose against his beard as he pulls the other man on top of him, sliding his hands all-over his backside, not too wantonly but still a little demanding.

+++

Riario sighs and closes his eyes as Nico’s lips trail down his neck. He pulls the young man closer still. So different from the wild unrestrained and almost vicious mating with Da Vinci. Nico is tender. Not wholly sure of himself yet but equally he knows his mind.

Girolamo leans further back onto the small bed, his hands pulling Nico's shirt loose so that his hands may roam the soft warm skin underneath. “Il mio angelo,” he whispers those words of endearment and reverence.

Nico lets out a long breath of air as he hears this again. He has missed being called an angel even though he knows that he is none. “Girolamo,” he sighs against the older man's lips, brushing them just very lightly with his. The caressing touches on his skin make him feel all on fire.

“You are so beautiful,” the count praises as his defences crumble. He rolls the lithe youngster on his back and pulls off his own shirt, the silver crucifix lying in contrast against his sun-kissed skin in a vain attempt to remind him of his vows. _But God sent you to me_ , he argues with himself. _And here you are again when I need you most._ He decides to let his heart speak for his faith as Zita - beautiful, loving Zita - had once taught him to. And he drapes himself over his devoted lover, kissing him deeply.

The crucifix is cool against Nico's chest as Girolamo starts to devour him. It's like it wants to tell him _here is where your studies begin. Church versus the needs of the human heart and body._

He lets his tongue answer the count's in kind, wrapping his arms and legs around the man on top, feeling their arousals grow between them.

Riario pulls at their trousers. Somehow between them, through passionate kisses and heated touches they manage to shed their garments. He pants as their naked bodies slide together, his erection chafing against Nico's swollen arousal.

+++

“Zo…” Leonardo groans as they fight with their clothes.  “Oh Zo, my Zo.” Their kisses are harder now as their desperation grows. But there is so much more that flows between them than lust. Leo could drown himself in those eyes that look back at him with so much love. “Be with me. Be in me,” he pleads as it feels so fantastic to be pressed against each other like this.

“I love to be in you, my Leo,” Zo gasps, biting lightly at Leo’s shoulder. _My Zo_ sent him right back to that river bank again but also ties that memory to the here and now. He feels a very comfortable warmth spread into each of his limbs. “I… I'd… I want you to be in me this time,” he croaks, “I’d like for you... to have me.” It makes him hard to utter these words. He never felt the need to bottom for Leonardo but it seems to feel so much more intimate for the man on the receiving end that he can't help but beg for it now.

Leonardo gasps too at that request. He stares at Zo in surprise. They've never done it that way. It's never even occurred to him before. Zo is just such a natural and talented top … And so he frowns. “You don't have to compete. If this is because what I said, about Rio... I'm not expecting you to…”

Zo lets his forehead fall against Leo's chest, groaning a bit in frustration that _Rio!_ was mentioned in this very moment but he knows he has to live with that. So he looks up again and grins, “This has _absolutely nothing_ to do with _Rio,”_ he mocks playfully, wriggling his hips, “this is me, wanting you to...to take my virginity, to make this night of homecoming extraordinary.” He lets the tip of his tongue slide over his lips seductively.

“Well,” Leo grins predatorily, “in that case, my willing _virgin_ , let me show you all the stars in Italy as I make you mine!” He flips the both of them over and holds himself up over Zo, wriggling his eyebrows.

“Fuck yes!” Zoroaster impatiently pulls at Leo and grabs for his proud manhood. “Use your exquisite tool on me, maestro,” he moans, letting his fingers dance over the other’s cock head. His own hard on straining against the artist's hot flesh.

Leonardo mewls as Zo handles him so perfectly, knowing exactly what makes him writhe in pleasure. He spits in his hand and brings his fingers to his lover's backside. _That_ they've done before in their experiments. And he quickly locates his man's pleasure button, grinning wickedly at the pleasure sparking behind Zo's eyes.

Zo makes some unintelligent grunting noises as these agile digits work him so perfectly. He rolls himself up more, gives Leo more of him to play with. He’s all excited and feels like a bow, pulled tight, ready for the arrow to fly away. He locks his gaze with Leo's, loving the intimacy of it.

+++

Nico pants harshly as Riario's slender middle finger enters him. “Holy ... Lord!” he swears oh so wrongly, sliding his hands over Riario's exposed globes in answer. They are very firm and his muscles play beneath his touch. He’s tempted to give the same pleasure but hesitates. Not yet. Instead he presses himself more onto the wanted intruder, loving to feel this man inside of him again after thinking he's lost it all to Da Vinci.

The count sways at Nico's eager reaction. He'd forgotten how tight the younger man feels, on his finger let alone his cock later. He'd forgotten how delightful it is to see that blush of arousal spread across Nico's chest, right up to his nipples and into his neck and rosy cheeks. He carefully adds another finger and slowly fucks them into his mentee, grabbing himself firmly with his free hand.

“Let me do that for you, please,” Nico moans, screwing himself onto those talented fingers that already stroke him very pleasurable from the inside. He tentatively wraps his hand over Girolamo's.

Riario meets Nico's clouded gaze, breathing heavily. He feels somehow less in control of himself with this beautiful golden angel than with his maestro. Whereas the battle of wills prevented him from losing his grip too quickly, with Nico he just wants to be swallowed alive by the overwhelming desire. But he nods, threading his fingers through Nico's until he feels them on his rock hard flesh.

“You're delicious,” Nico dares to whisper. It's such an exquisite feeling to have that hard sword in his hand. _Zo is bigger_ jumps unwantedly into his mind and he has to suppress a snigger. _Girolamo is longer... And damn his fingers…”_ One more please,” he kind of orders, fitting his rhythm to the count's.

“You wicked boy,” Girolamo grins. He bucks up into Nico's fist a little, his own eyes slightly unfocused as pleasure clouds his mind. Another finger stretches his lover beautifully and he feels the strong muscles accommodate him, beckoning him. “Let me take you, my angel,” he pleads to replace his fingers with his cock.

+++

“Are you sure?” Leo checks when Zo tells he's ready. He wants to penetrate him now, wants to let Zo feel how fucking fantastic it is to have a man's dick up your arse. But he doesn't want to push Zo too fast too soon.

Zo nods his head determinedly. Leo can take him, so why wouldn't he be able to enjoy the same? “I want to feel your gorgeous cock inside me,” he begs, “just...Just take it slow please.” He adds a little anxiously, knowing how Leo sometimes wants him to sheathe his sword right to the hilt into him.

“Of course, my beloved,” Leo purrs. _Oh how sweet it sounds to say that._ He has no oil so spit will have to do. He rubs the tip of his cock against Zo's fluttering entrance, tremors going right to his own core at the sight of it. “Mine,” he licks his lips as he presses inward.

Zoroaster curses loudly. “Ssss goood !” is the end of the strange sentence. “My beloved…” he repeats and smiles as he reaches for Leo, squeezing his unfamiliar muscles, testing what they can do with this luscious tool that starts to move inside him.

+++

“Niccolo…” It's somewhere between a groan and a whisper as he slides into that incredible heat. His cock throbs pleasantly as it's gripped so tight. His lips press hard against his young lover’s mouth, his tongue probing to penetrate another wet heat to become truly one with Nico.

The young man sucks greedily at that eager tongue, his hands clawing at Riario's back searching for more and getting it. He feels spread wide open from his soon to be teacher, welcoming him in with pleasant moans, gyrating his hips. “Girolamo,” he gasps as he comes up for air, holding on tight, admiring those fine features from so close.

The Roman lord holds himself up and smiles at the flushed man underneath him. He rocks into him slowly, not wanting to rush what may be - _must_ be! - their last time engaging in this sin. He loves how he can feel Nico grip him, pull him in inch by inch. How his muscles work him so perfectly, squeezing him in all the right places. “You are perfect,” he murmurs as they move together.

 _“_ So are you,” Nico breathes the answer into his lover's mouth, arching against him as the feeling of being joined with this extraordinary man fully consumes him. No one ever called Nico perfect and he doubts that he is but right in this moment it doesn't matter. Riario sliding in and out of him in a steady, mind blowing pace, his eyes on him - there is no other word for it than _perfection._

_+++_

Leonardo marvels in this new experiment. He delights in the emotions that shimmer across Zo's features. It feels so extraordinary to move inside of his friend like that. There are few men that had lain before him. The count had been the first whom he loved and wasn't just a whore. Now the one receiving him is someone who truly holds his heart. And it feels explosive. Heavenly.

“How… is it… for you?” he asks softly, hoping that Zo agrees with his sentiments.

“Leo, my Leo…” Zoroaster can't really answer the question because the rare occasion of him being speechless has occurred now. His breath is lost for one and his heart is in his throat because of the way Leonardo is looking at him. _Love._ True love in those attentive, seemingly all seeing eyes. They're not flitting around now. They're all focused on him, giving him his whole, undivided attention. “It's...mind...blow… ing,” he manages to gasp after a few strokes of that gorgeous cock spoiling him. “Oh fuck, I love you, Leo,” he has to repeat it because he finally can.

“Forever mine,” Leo blurts out, knowing though that he means it, no matter how crazy it sounds. Even in his youthful crush on this man he has never felt so head over heels for him before. It's like he's suddenly learned to see. _He's so handsome! Those eyes! Those dark curls! That sexy stubble! Those perfect lips!_  He wonders briefly how trying to sneak out with the intent to fuck with Riario one last time has ended up with falling in love with Zo all over again. But before he can give that distracting question too much breath Zo’s body adjust and swallows him whole. “Oh fuck yes!!”

“Always yours,” Zo sighs as a never known emotion of being one with his best friend and now beloved grabs him. No matter how often he had topped Leonardo, no matter how crazy and unique their experiments regarding the human body through intercourse had been. It was never like _this._ Never like truly belonging to his genius. Being the one on the receiving end, all nerve strings holding the ever curious Da Vinci inside of him, stimulating him, is beyond anything he's ever felt. Gasping and writhing he caresses that beloved face, his body covered in sweat, his channel contracting uncontrollable. His cock rock hard, pulsing between them.

+++

Girolamo is impressed by Nico's stamina. He works him from underneath expertly, as if Da Vinci himself had given his apprentice some lessons well beyond the realm of a master. He even wonders briefly if Nico had indeed slept with the genius, but he pushes the thought away, not wanting to spoil this wonderful moment with feelings of jealousy for one or the other.

“I want to make you feel so good, my angel,” he purrs as he reaches between them, wrapping his slender fingers around Nico's throbbing rod.

“Si, you...You … do!” Nico tosses his head from side to side as the double onslaught of incredible pleasure overwhelms him. His fingers dig into the muscles of Riario's thighs as he tries to hold on. He grabs the base of his cock with his other hand, to put to use what Zo so kindly taught him, staving off his very close orgasm to enjoy these rare and very intimate moments with his count for as long as possible.

Girolamo grins as Nico lasts beyond what he thought was already near its end. He takes it as a challenge that the young man is not done yet and pulls back, flipping Nico over. Before the young man knows good and well what has happened he's already sheathed deep inside of him again. “My angel of Florence,” he whispers into Nico's ear as he presses himself flush against the other's back. “And soon to be my angel of Rome.”

“I can't...wait!” Nico exclaims, loving this new position. It drives the Captain's fine cock even further into him, angling perfectly against that wondrous spot deep inside of him, that makes him see stars. It feels delicious to have the other draped over him. Their whole bodies rubbing together from the inside and out. _Would the cock squeezing help again to prevent me from coming yet?_ Nico wonders, not wanting this to be over.

Girolamo swears God is playing tricks with him as he feels in heaven right there and then,  regardless of the setting of a dubious harbour tavern and regardless of the fact that he is close to losing his faith in the young man who squeezes him so perfectly.

+++

“Come for me, Zo. I want… you to… on my cock,” Leonardo pants. Sweat pearls on his brow now as they work each other into a frenzy. His heart thrums in his temples in the same rhythm as his cock drilling into Zo again and again. His lover impresses him as he takes the pounding like a veteran rather than a virgin.

“Fuck! Yes! Love... your fucking...hot rod!” Zoroaster gasps, feeling his climax build up in his guts. He grabs for Leonardo’s face to crush their mouths together, needing another battle of tongues as his pleasure button gets nailed over and over, his own shaft rubbing against his lover's well trained abs. His balls are so tight, he knows he’s going to explode any moment.

+++

Girolamo buries his nose in Nico's golden curls when he reaches his climax with a deep breathless moan.

Nico grins triumphantly through his haze as his beloved count comes first, spilling his seed oh so deep into him. “Touch me, please,” he begs boldly, knowing that Girolamo's fingers on him again will send him tumbling over the edge in an instant. The wet heat inside of him is already making his insides boil with giant pleasure.

The count feels blindly for Nico's thick sword underneath the both of them even as the final pulses of his own orgasm still tremble through his legs. “Come for me then,” he breathes hotly into Nico's ear as he pulls at him, “il mio angelo.”

The loving words and those magnificent fingers on his highly aroused manhood give Nico no choice than to follow the count into bliss. He grabs for him awkwardly as his body spasms beneath his lover, syllables that make no sense escape him.

+++

“Leo…” the word melts away on Zoroaster's lips as he's spoiled from the inside. His climax erupted out of him mere moments ago. Unique. Special. New. He clasps his hands onto Da Vinci's buttocks to urge him into the sweet abyss too. “I love you so much,” he repeats the romantic sentence yet again, moaning it,  licking the side of Leonardo's neck with just the tip of his tongue, teasingly, simultaneously working his inner muscles around the other's shaft.

Leo shouts out. It's so different. To have Zo impaled on his cock for once, his lover's semen splattered against his abdomen. To have those muscles working him as he comes. Every fibre in his body seems to have responded to the call. Every muscle trembling as his seed shoots into his lover. “My love.” It's beautiful. It's just as passionate as the heated encounters with Girolamo. And yet it feels so different too. Credible. Sustainable. Reciprocated. Not just a fleeting wet dream that will burst at sunrise, but a lasting love that will see him through the decades. This is the man he wants to have by his side and in his bed every day of his life to come.

He sinks down into Zo's embrace when he has nothing more to give. He kisses him, long, deeply, lazily, lovingly. “Ti amo, Tommaso Masini. Tu sei tutto ciò di cui ho bisogno,” he whispers into Zo's mouth.

+++

Nico holds out his hand to Leonardo, feeling all grown up now, seeing his new path clearly in front of him. “I want to thank you for everything you have done for me, for what you have taught me in the past decade, maestro,” he smiles. The young man knows he's learned lots and lots. Da Vinci had his own, unconventional ways of doing things. It had been an honour for Nico to be part of the genius’ extravagant experiments. Being strapped to a life size winged bird model out of wood and cloth and then pulled up high into the air via a carriage was scary at first, but flying over the landscape was indescribable. Or having the maestro at his and Zo’s mercy while he did his diving in a suit experiment underneath the Vatican...It showed how much trust Da Vinci had in them.

Da Vinci blinks again at Nico, slowly and a little hesitantly shaking his hand, throwing the still dark figure behind the young man a brief look. He had expected the count to have disappeared by the time he and Zo had left their room. So to find him waiting for them in the stables with Nico had confused him at first. And when Nico had told them about his decision it had left the engineer with a range of emotions he could not yet process - _Nico is leaving! My little family is breaking up! He's leaving to go with Girolamo! So I'm not good enough but Nico is? No, no, you don't want to go to Rome yourself, you made that clear. And you have Zo now!_

“If… you're sure…” is all he manages in the end, Nico's gratitude and praise getting lost in the whirlwind of feelings.

Zo sighs but smiles, pulling Nico in for a fierce, brotherly embrace, ruffling his hair. “Be careful,” he mutters into the blonde curls close to his ear. He isn‘t as surprised as Leo of the young man's decision but it's still hard to see it come true. Knowing people have to find their own way in life is one thing, saying goodbye to them quite another. And letting Nico go with Count Riario still makes his gut churn. But his friend had made it very clear to him, that _this_ is his new path. That he needs to find his own way now. “Good luck, little brother,” he holds him at arm’s length before letting him go.

“Thank you Zo,” Nico pulls his friend close again, “for everything,” he murmurs, thinking back to all their adventures and the last, very private one, especially. He’s a sad to say goodbye to Zo, the man who had been hiw brother and in in the end his teacher too in the most unexpected way. He’ll miss them both greatly. But he's positive and determined that when hel returns to Florence again, able to share his studies about Rome and papal politics, that he will make both his teachers proud of him.

“You’re welcome,” Zoroaster winks, squeezing his shoulders one last time, then turns to Riario. “You better let no harm come to him, count,” he says in a warning tone. But he holds out his hand to the man he is glad to be parted from anyway.

Count Riario raises a surprised eyebrow at the gesture, but takes the held out hand graciously, offering Zoroaster a courteous smile. “You have my word, may God be my witness,” he says with as much sincerity as he can muster.

Then the count turns to Da Vinci. Last night's goodbye had been hard enough. Now that they are face to face again he feels his stomach knot once again. “I promise that I will look after Nico. No harm will come to him.”

Leonardo looks up into those dazzling eyes. He wants to make a show of the fact that he's chosen Zo as his lover to contest with what's obvious to him about Riario and Nico, but he cannot bring himself to do it. “I don't understand,” he says softly though, in an attempt for the other two not to hear his words even though they stand so close. “You told me to take Nico with me. You made me promise to teach him, to nurture his potential. Now you take him away from me. Why? What made you change your mind?”

Girolamo takes a couple of breaths to let that fair question sink in. To find the honest answer in his heart. “Because you’ve shown me that perhaps there are things that I can teach Nico. Because .... I love him.” When the words come out even he is surprised by them. “And whilst I love you too, Leonardo, I cannot give you what you want. The world is not yet ready for you, artista. It still belongs to God. _I_ still belong to God. But perhaps Nico can be the bridge between our two worlds.”

Leo blinks nervously, looking from Nico, who looks just as gobsmacked, to Zo and back to Riario, wondering yet again what he has missed.

The Roman leans over and kisses Da Vinci briefly on the cheek, whispering, “Let someone else make you happy.” He throws Zo a surreptitious glance. “Someone who is willing to sacrifice more for you than I am. He deserves you more than I do.”

+++

Whilst Zo had had of a hard time comprehending the declarations of love from the count for both of his friends, he has gotten over it now, aware that he has Leo finally all to himself. At least for a while. Until he has to compete for his boyfriend’s attention again, if not with other people than certainly with the workings of the universe itself. He grins at that though, imgaining what wonderous adventures still lie in store for them both. What more fantastic discoveries Da Vinci will make that will shake the very foundations of Rome.

“I love you more,” he whispers as he licks behind Leo's ear, being draped over his back after a rather heated session of love making in yet another tavern on their way home.

Leo smiles. Whilst having had Zo bottom for him had been spectacular, it feels comfortingly amazing to have his man on top of him again.  The jealous statement makes him grin too as he lets Zo push him into the mattress. “Yes,” he murmurs. “Rio told me to let you make me happy. He said that you deserve me more than he does.”

Zo thinks he didn’t hear right. Had a kind of a hidden praise for him really come out of the count’s mouth? Times had truly changed. He clears his throat awkwardly, breathing in the scent of his beloved, “Do you... do you think I can ... make you happy?” he asks a little unsurely since he tried that in the past but they never admitted to more than friendship. “I want to,” he lets his hands caress Leonardo’s outstretched arms.

Da Vinci rolls himself onto his side best he can so that he can look at Zo. He caresses his cheek and jaw, kissing him softly. “Yes,” he says sincerely. “You already do and have done from the moment I first met you. You may dislike Count Riario, but he's taught me some things about myself that I could not see before.” Another soft kiss. “That sometimes we chase after an unattainable dream and yet we fail to see that our real happiness is already within reach.”

“He taught you well,” Zo croaks full of emotion, “You make me happy too.” He indulges in a long and gentle lip lock. After a while he murmurs, “I hate to admit it, but our Nico might be in good hands and I’ll miss him.”

“Me too,” Leonardo agrees. “But perhaps it will do him good to be from under our wings for a while. He's grown so much. And I do believe that Girolamo will teach him new wisdoms and insights. Perhaps the count is right and Nico can be the bridge between the old and the new. Whatever happens, I can see now that my apprentice and our friend is destined for his own great things.” He smiles wickedly, curling himself into Zo's strong arms. “I don't think we did badly, raising _our_ Nico into the fine young man he is. Now it's time for him to spread his own wings.” He looks up into Zo's eyes. “You'll come with me though, wherever the golden head leads me next, won't you?”

“Yes, I will,” Zo says firmly without any sign of doubt. “I will follow you to the ends of the earth.” 

Da Vinci smiles at Zo using the count's threat from before their adventures in the New World as a promise. But he knows it's the truth. And with a previously unknown sense of peace he falls asleep in the arms of his true love.

+++

“Thank you,” Nico mutters as he rides beside Riario towards Rome. His mind and stomach still flip somersaults as he thinks about the count’s admission earlier. _He loves me!_ _He said so, even in front of Zo!_ he thinks excitedly. He wants to declare his love in return, but then swallows it. It would not be appropriate. It would betray the trust the Captain General has placed in him remembering his place, _their_ place. But even knowing that there cannot be anything but friendship between them from now on, Nico knows that he does not have to say the words outloud anymore for the count to know them. He feels for the first time in his life he may truly understand something about the count's beliefs that Da Vinci never did. That some things do not have to seen or heard to know that they are there.

Girolamo looks over briefly and smiles before returning his gaze to the road ahead with a newfound clarity and purpose.

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tu sei tutto ciò di cui ho bisogno - you're all that I need
> 
> We hope you have enjoyed these masters of love <3 Please leave us your feedback x


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